Word.ws English Dictionary

separate the wheat from the chaff

separate the wheat from the chaff verb: to select only that which is of value.

Verb

separate the wheat from the chaff (third-person singular simple present separates the wheat from the chaff, present participle separating the wheat from the chaff, simple past and past participle separated the wheat from the chaff)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To select only that which is of value.
    • As a punishment, Zhemao and her affiliated accounts were suspended permanently. Most of her articles were deleted based on community consensus. Some Wikipedians even wrote to experts, seeking help to separate the wheat from the chaff.2022 July 13, Rachel Cheung, “A Bored Chinese Housewife Spent Years Falsifying Russian History on Wikipedia”, in Vice, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2026

Synonyms of separate the wheat from the chaff

Forms of separate the wheat from the chaff

third-person singular presentseparates the wheat from the chaff
present participleseparating the wheat from the chaff
past participleseparated the wheat from the chaff
pastseparated the wheat from the chaff

Origin of separate the wheat from the chaff

The figurative sense is by extension from the literal sense, which is threshing. Because threshing has been an important activity for humans for thousands of years, it is well represented both in folk wisdom and (relatedly) in the Bible; for example, Matthew 3:12.

Questions about separate the wheat from the chaff

What does separate the wheat from the chaff mean?
Separate the wheat from the chaff means to select only that which is of value.
What part of speech is separate the wheat from the chaff?
Separate the wheat from the chaff is a verb.
What is the past tense of separate the wheat from the chaff?
The past tense of separate the wheat from the chaff is separated the wheat from the chaff.

Words near separate the wheat from the chaff in the dictionary

  1. separate peaces
  2. separate school
  3. separate schools
  4. separate the men from the boys
  5. separate the sheep from the goats
  6. separate the wheat from the chaff
  7. separated
  8. separated out
  9. separated the men from the boys
  10. separated the wheat from the chaff
  11. separatedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: separate the wheat from the chaff (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-separate the wheat from the chaff.ogg.

Cite this entry: “separate the wheat from the chaff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/separate_the_wheat_from_the_chaff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.