to winnow

Examples

• All

• Think you can winnow out every impure motive by imposing a stricter standard of doctrine or worship?

  Blog text (3)

• She decided to winnow her collection of books, keeping only those that had special meaning to her.

• Identifying a single learning objective is a powerful exercise that will force you to winnow and focus.

  Academic text (2009)

• In the end, someone will come up with a way to winnow out gold from mountains of dross.

  Blog text (10)

• The singer recorded over 300 fully arranged songs before winnowing down the album to seventeen.

  Academic text (2017)

• Several times over the years I'd winnowed down my stash of "possessions" in the attic.

  Fiction book (1998)

• How will the present-day processes of winnowing superficial or ephemeral articles from solidly researched ones occur?

  Academic text (2005)

• We found 1,034 articles that matched our keyword entries, and after various exclusions, we winnowed this number down to 16 articles that contained adequate data regarding audiometric evaluation and follow-up.

  Academic text (2006)

• After reviewing all the applications, the committee winnowed the candidates down to the top three finalists.

• In order to create a more focused presentation, he winnowed his list of ideas to just the most essential ones.

Synonyms

P

to pick

vsto winnow

∞ 1.0

To choose carefully from a group

involves separating the most important elements through careful review and filtering

S

to select

vsto winnow

823 2.5

To choose someone or something from a group

is about separating the desirable parts from a group after review

P

to pick over

vsto winnow

2 3.6

To look through items carefully to choose the best or remove bad ones

is about separating top elements after careful examination rather than basic choosing

W

to winnow down

vsto winnow

2 6.5

Make a large list smaller by removing worse choices

focuses on selecting desirable elements after careful examination

S

to select out

vsto winnow

1 4.4

To choose some items from a group and separate them from others

is the careful selection of the most important elements after sorting

W

to winnow out

vsto winnow

1 7.1

Remove people or things from a group because they are not suitable

does selection by separating desirable items through careful review

C

to cull out

vsto winnow

1 7.1

To choose the best items from a larger group and remove them

focuses on choosing desirable elements rather than just removing many items

S

to sieve

vsto winnow

1 5.6

Examine information carefully to find what is important

is the selective choosing of valuable parts after close inspection

Antonyms

C

to combine

638 2.7

To mix two or more things into one

Phrasal Verbs

W

to winnow down

2 6.5

Make a large list smaller by removing worse choices

W

to winnow out

1 7.1

Remove people or things from a group because they are not suitable

How Selective

to sift

61 3.7

to winnow

8 8.3

to screen

97 3.4

to scan

127 2.7

Surface Forms

Etymology