filter

«filter» in Mova's school dictionary: a material or device with tiny holes that lets liquid or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a filter, filters); verb (filter, filters, filtered, filtering)

meaning for a pupil

1) A filter is a material or device with tiny holes that lets liquid or air pass but catches solid bits. tree →

2) To filter is to pass something through a filter to clean or separate it. tree →

3) A filter is a setting that changes or blocks something, like a photo filter or an internet filter. tree →

4) To filter in or out is to move slowly in small amounts, like light or people. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, filtering separates an insoluble solid (like sand) from a liquid (like water) using filter paper and a funnel; dissolved salt passes through. Water treatment plants filter water to make it safe. Coffee machines, fish tanks and vacuum cleaners have filters. In online safety, filters block harmful websites. Phrases: filter paper, water filter, air filter, filter out, sunlight filtered through.

examples

• We filtered the muddy water through filter paper. tree →
• The sand stayed in the filter. tree →
• Salt passes through a filter because it is dissolved. tree →
• Our fish tank has a filter to keep it clean. tree →
• Sunlight filtered through the leaves. tree →
• The school internet has a filter. tree →
• She added a funny filter to the photo. tree →

note

A filter cannot remove dissolved things like salt or sugar; for that you evaporate the water. Filtered water from a stream may still have germs; it is not always safe to drink. Do not confuse filter with sieve: a sieve has bigger holes.

In the corpora

• Many online photos are filtered or edited; comparing your real face to an edited picture is unfair on yourself.
• Photos online are often smoothed with filters; real skin has lines and spots, and nobody looks like a filter.
• Safe search is a setting that filters out adult results when you search, though it can miss some.
• Safety settings and children's accounts filter unsuitable content, but they are not perfect, so telling a grown-up still matters.
• Spam filters use AI to spot junk and scam emails, but some real emails end up in the spam folder too.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «filter» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.