Meaning & use
winnow
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitivetechnical
To separate lighter husks from heavier grain by letting wind or a current of air blow the husks away.
Grammar: Takes an object, such as grain, but it can be used without one: they winnowed after the harvest.
Patterns
- winnow something
- winnow grain from chaff
Farmers once winnowed the wheat by tossing it into the breeze.
After threshing, the workers winnow the rice on wide baskets.
They winnowed the barley until only clean grain remained.
verbtransitivefigurative
To reduce a large group to a smaller one by carefully removing the less suitable or less useful parts.
Grammar: Usually followed by down or out: winnow down the list.
Patterns
- winnow something down
- winnow out something
- winnow something to something
The committee will winnow the applications down to ten finalists.
She winnowed her wardrobe until it fit into one suitcase.
Editors winnow hundreds of submissions each month to find the best stories.
Word forms
| third person singular | winnows |
|---|---|
| past tense | winnowed |
| past participle | winnowed |
| -ing form | winnowing |
Common combinations
- winnow down
- We need to winnow down this long list of ideas.
- winnow out
- The teacher winnowed out the weakest essays first.
- winnow the grain
- They winnow the grain on a windy afternoon.
- winnow the field
- The first round will winnow the field to six candidates.
- winnow the chaff
- Good editors winnow the chaff from the wheat.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sift
- Sift means to pass something through a screen or examine it carefully, whereas winnow is specifically about removing the weaker part with air or selection.
- cull
- Cull suggests removing unwanted items, often animals, while winnow stresses keeping the best by repeated sorting.
- narrow
- Narrow is a plain word for reducing choices, but it does not imply that the removed parts were worthless.
- filter
- Filter suggests letting some things pass through a barrier, while winnow suggests gradually removing the poorer parts.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: winnow or window? winnow or winch?
winnow vs window
Window is a glass opening in a wall and only resembles winnow in sound and spelling.
winnow vs winch
A winch is a machine for lifting and pulling with a cable, which has nothing to do with sorting.
Practice
The judges had to ___ more than two hundred entries down to a shortlist of five.
Choose one answer.
Winnow here means to remove the weaker entries until the best remain. Scatter would spread them out, which does not narrow them.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “winnow”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.