filter

Plural: filters

Noun

• device that removes something from whatever passes through it
• an electrical device that alters the frequency spectrum of signals passing through it
• 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.
• Self-restraint in speech.
• A non-empty upper set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary infima (a.k.a. meets).
• A translucent object placed in the light path of a camera to remove certain wavelengths (colors), or a computer program that simulates such an effect.
• An appearance-altering digital image effect.

Verb

Verb Forms: filtered, filtering, filters

• To pass a liquid or gas through a device to remove impurities.
• remove by passing through a filter
  • "filter out the impurities"
• pass through
• run or flow slowly, as in drops or in an unsteady stream
• To sort, sift, or isolate.
• To diffuse; to cause to be less concentrated or focused.
• To pass through a filter or to act as though passing through a filter.
• To move slowly or gradually; to come or go a few at a time.
• To ride a motorcycle between lanes on a road
• To be discouraged where a connoisseur or hardcore fan would not.

Examples

• He had to filter out all the invalid words from his mental list.
• He runs an email filter to catch the junk mail.
• He's got no filter, and he's always offending people as a result.
• I can skip past all the traffic on my bike by filtering.
• 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.
• Most people get filtered by that episode.
• The collection of cofinite subsets of ℝ is a filter under inclusion: it includes the intersection of every pair of its members, and includes every superset of every cofinite set.
• The crowd filtered into the theater.
• The leaves of the trees filtered the light.
• The water filtered through the rock and soil.
• This strainer should filter out the large particles.

Synonyms

dribble, filter out, filtrate, percolate, permeate, separate out, sink in, strain, trickle, to filter out

Antonyms

ideal

Related Words

filtrate, filtration, filtride