Meaning & use
Winnows
Last updated
Separates grain from chaff by blowing air through it, or, figuratively, narrows something down by removing unwanted parts.
See it in a sentence
The farmer winnows the wheat by tossing it into the wind so the light chaff blows away.
The committee winnows hundreds of applications down to a handful of finalists.
A note on using this word
The figurative sense, meaning to sort out the best from a larger group, is now more common in everyday English than the original farming meaning.
Words with a similar meaning
siftsnarrows
Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.
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