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Filter vs Winnow - What's the difference?

filter | winnow |

As nouns the difference between filter and winnow

is that filter is a device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another while winnow is that which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.

As verbs the difference between filter and winnow

is that filter is to sort, sift, or isolate while winnow is to subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.

filter

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another.
  • Electronics or software that separates unwanted signals (for example noise) from wanted signals or that attenuates selected frequencies.
  • Any item, mechanism, device or procedure that acts to separate or isolate.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place
  • , date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters .}}
  • (mathematics, order theory) A non-empty upper set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary infima (a.k.a. meets).
  • The collection of cofinite subsets of ''?'' is a filter under inclusion: it includes the intersection of every pair of its members, and includes every superset of every cofinite set.
    If (1) the universal set (here, the set of natural numbers) were called a "large" set, (2) the superset of any "large" set were also a "large" set, and (3) the intersection of a pair of "large" sets were also a "large" set, then the set of all "large" sets would form a filter .

    Antonyms

    * (order theory) ideal

    Hyponyms

    * (order theory) ultrafilter

    Derived terms

    * air filter * cigarette filter * fuel filter * oil filter * glare filter

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To sort, sift, or isolate.
  • * This strainer should filter out the large particles.
  • * '>citation
  • To diffuse; to cause to be less concentrated or focused.
  • * The leaves of the trees filtered the light.
  • To pass through a filter or to act as though passing through a filter.
  • * The water filtered through the rock and soil.
  • To move slowly or gradually; to come or go a few at a time.
  • * The crowd filtered into the theater.
  • To ride a motorcycle between lanes on a road
  • * I can skip past all the traffic on my bike by filtering .
  • Synonyms

    * to filter out (something)

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    winnow

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (agriculture) To subject (granular material, especially food grain) to a current of air separating heavier and lighter components, as grain from chaff.
  • *
  • (figuratively) To separate, sift, analyze, or test in this manner.
  • They winnowed the field to twelve.
    They winnowed the winners from the losers.
    They winnowed the losers from the winners.
  • (literary) To blow upon or toss about by blowing; to set in motion as with a fan or wings.
  • * 1872 Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds
  • Gulls average much larger than terns, with stouter build; the feet are larger and more ambulatorial, the wings are shorter and not so thin; the birds winnow the air in a steady course unlike the buoyant dashing flight of their relatives.
  • (intransitive, literary, dated) To move about with a flapping motion, as of wings; to flutter.
  • Usage notes

    * Used with adverb or preposition "down"; see also winnow down. * Used with adverbs or prepositions "through", "away", and "out".

    Derived terms

    * winnow down * winnower * winnowing basket * winnowing fan * winnowing machine * winnow sheet * winnow grain from chaff * winnow the wheat from the chaff

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • That which winnows or which is used in winnowing; a contrivance for fanning or winnowing grain.
  • References

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