sift
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
siftIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɪft
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements
Move as if through a sieve
“The soldiers sifted through the woods.”
transitive
To separate or scatter (things) as if by sieving.
Check and sort carefully
transitive
To examine (something) carefully.
transitive
[with through] To carefully go through a set of objects, or a collection of information, in order to find something.
noun
An act of sifting.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements
Used this way, sift is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of separating grain from chaff.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.