separate

separate is on the Basic English 850 List.

sense - separate - serious

separate is one of the 1000 most common headwords.

sense - separate - serious

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: sep‧a‧rate

noun

• enPR: sĕ'pərət, IPA ^(key): /ˈsɛpərət/
• SAMPA: /"sEp@r@t/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

verb

• enPR: sĕ'pərāt, IPA ^(key): /ˈsɛpəreɪt/
• SAMPA: /"sEp@reIt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

Positive separate

Comparative none

Superlative none

1. Being separate means that a piece of an object is not connected to or attached to the rest of the object.

   This chair was broken into five separate pieces.

2. If two objects, ideas, or people are separate from one another, they are not together.

   I try to keep my personal life separate from work.

Verb

Plain form separate

Third-person singular separates

Past tense separated

Past participle separated

Present participle separating

1. To separate something is to take it apart, divide it, or stop it from connecting.

   I diced the onions and the carrots, separating them into two piles.

Synonyms

• individual

Related words

• separation