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say it: SEP-ur-ayt
separate is a verb, adjective and noun meaning "act as a barrier between; stand between". It is pronounced /ˈsɛpɚˌeɪt/ — SEP-ur-ayt. It carries 19 recorded senses.
mark as different
“We distinguish several kinds of maple”
arrange or order by classes or categories
“How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?”
discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
“The business partners broke over a tax question”
“The couple separated after 25 years of marriage”
“My friend and I split up”
become separated into pieces or fragments
“The figurine broke”
“The freshly baked loaf fell apart”
treat differently on the basis of sex or race
standing apart; not attached to or supported by anything
“a freestanding bell tower”
“a house with a separate garage”
separated according to race, sex, class, or religion
“separate but equal”
“girls and boys in separate classes”
have the connection undone; having become separate
a garment that can be purchased separately and worn in combinations with other garments
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for separate come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.