sieve

/sɪv/

sieve noun: a device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.

Image: BMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

sieve (plural sieves)

A device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.
- Near-synonyms: sifter, strainer, temse
- Use the sieve to get the pasta from the water.
Synonyms:

sifter, strainer, temse
A process, physical or abstract, that arrives at a final result by filtering out unwanted pieces of input from a larger starting set of input.
- Given a list of consecutive numbers starting at 1, the Sieve of Eratosthenes algorithm will find all of the prime numbers.
- Among, ^([sic]) his other achievements, Matiyasevich and his colleague Boris Stechkin also developed an interesting “visual sieve” for prime numbers, which effectively “crosses out” all the composite numbers, leaving only the primes.2010, Luke Mastin, “20TH CENTURY MATHEMATICS - ROBINSON AND MATIYASEVICH”, in www.storyofmathematics.com, retrieved 08 Sep 2013
(obsolete) A kind of coarse basket.
(colloquial) A person, or their mind, that cannot remember things or is unable to keep secrets.
(derogatory, slang) An intern who lets too many non-serious cases into the emergency room.
- To be a sieve was to lack clinical judgment, courage, and group loyalty all at once.1997, Leo Galland, The Four Pillars of Healing, page 25
A collection of morphisms in a category whose codomain is a certain fixed object of that category, which collection is closed under precomposition by any morphism in the category.

Verb

sieve (third-person singular simple present sieves, present participle sieving, simple past and past participle sieved)

(transitive) To strain, sift or sort using a sieve.
- Serpulorbis grandis feeds on plankton that it seives ^([sic]) from the water like a clam does.2001, Julian Sprung, Invertebrates: A Quick Reference Guide, page 111
Synonyms:

screen
(transitive) To concede; to let in.
- This was their seventh defeat out of nine finals, including five in a row, and the second half was a chastening experience for the Serie A champions, culminating in them sieving more goals in one match than in the rest of the competition put together.2017 June 3, Daniel Taylor, “Real Madrid win Champions League as Cristiano Ronaldo double defeats Juve”, in The Guardian (London)

sieve meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sieve in Hindi

device to separate larger objects from smaller ones or from liquids: चलनी calnī, छन्नी channī
process that filters out unwanted pieces of input: छानना chānnā
to strain, sift or sort using a sieve: छानना chānnā

sieve in Tamil

device to separate larger objects from smaller ones or from liquids: சல்லடை callaṭai

sieve in Marathi

to sieve, sift: चाळणे ċāḷṇe
a sieve: चाळणी cāḷaṇī

sieve in Urdu

device to separate larger objects from smaller ones or from liquids: چھلنی chalnī, غرپال ġarpāl

More languagesFewer languages

sieve in Bengali: চালনি, ছাঁকনি
sieve in Telugu: జల్లించు jalliñcu
sieve in Malayalam: അരിപ്പ arippa, അരിക്കൽ arikkal, അരിക്കുക arikkuka
sieve in Kannada: ಜರಡಿ jaraḍi
sieve in Punjabi: ਛਾਣ
sieve in Gujarati: ચારણી cārṇī
sieve in Odia: ସିଭ୍ କରନ୍ତୁ, ଛାଣ, ଛାଣିବା
sieve in Sanskrit: तितउ títaü
sieve in Sinhala: සලනවා salanawā
sieve in Assamese: চালনি saloni
sieve in Tagalog: bithay
sieve in Arabic: غِرْبَال ḡirbāl, مِصْفاة miṣfāh, صَفَّى ṣaffā, غَرْبَلَ ḡarbala
sieve in Malay: ayakan
sieve in Indonesian: pengayak, saringan
sieve in Persian: الک alak, پرویزن parvizan, غربال ġarbâl, سرند sarand
sieve in Thai: กระชอน grà-chɔɔn, เครื่องร่อน krʉ̂ʉang-rɔ̂n, ร่อน rɔ̂n
sieve in Vietnamese: rây, rây bột
sieve in Myanmar: ဆန်ခါ hcanhka

Examples of sieve in a sentence

The sieve will filter out large rocks and grains of sand.
Oh, that's right. You said that yesterday, didn't you? I have a mind like a sieve.
Chappatis are made with sieved wholemeal flour.

All 26 example sentences with sieve

Synonyms of sieve

Forms of sieve

Noun
plural	sieves
Verb
third-person singular present	sieves
present participle	sieving
past participle	sieved
past	sieved

Plural of sieve: sieves

Origin of sieve

From Middle English sive, syfe, from Old English sife, from Proto-West Germanic *sibi (“sieve”), from Proto-Indo-European *seyp-, *seyb- (“to pour, sieve, strain, run, drip”). Akin to German Sieb, Dutch zeef, Proto-Slavic *sito (Russian си́то (síto), сев (sev), се́ять (séjatʹ)).

Words formed from sieve

Phrases with sieve

Words that rhyme with sieve

5 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sieve

What does sieve mean?: Sieve means a device with a mesh, grate, or otherwise perforated bottom to separate, in a granular material, larger particles from smaller ones, or to separate solid objects from a liquid.
What is sieve in Hindi?: Sieve in Hindi is चलनी (calnī), छन्नी (channī), छानना (chānnā). See Sieve meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is sieve?: Sieve can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce sieve?: Sieve is pronounced /sɪv/.
What is the plural of sieve?: The plural of sieve is sieves.

Words near sieve in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sieve (page history and authors); चाळणी (Marathi) (page history and authors); sieve (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ಜರಡಿ (Kannada) (page history and authors); sieve (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sieve (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); तितउ (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); සලනවා (Sinhala) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sieve.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sieve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sieve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.