What does separated mean?
Word: Separated
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Separated means moved apart or kept apart; divided into parts. It is the past tense of separate.
Synonyms: divided, parted, split, detached
Antonyms: united, combined
Word origin: From Latin separare, to put apart, from se- (apart) and parare (to arrange).
How do you spell separated?
Syllables: sep - a - rat - ed
Tricky part: The second vowel is an a, but in speech it sounds like e, so seperated is very common. Another slip is to swallow the a altogether: seprated.
Watch out for: seperated, seprated, separeted
Memory tip: There is a rat in separated. Picture a rat that has been separated from its cheese.
Separated in a sentence
Example 1: Mum separated the egg yolks from the whites for the cake.
Example 2: A thin wooden wall separated our classroom from the music room.
Example 3: The puppies were separated from their mother only when they were eight weeks old.
Fun Fact
Separate is often named among the most commonly misspelt words in English, and the usual slip is seperate.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
s_parat_d
a) e, e
b) e, i
c) i, e
d) a, e
Show answer
a) e, e. The word starts with sep, and the past-tense ending is -ed, so both gaps take an e.
Word Connection
Which word means the opposite of separated in this sentence?
A tall curtain separated the two halves of the hall during the rehearsal.
a) joined
b) screened
c) folded
d) sorted
Show answer
a) joined. Joined is the reverse of separated; screened is close to it in meaning, and sorted and folded are something else.
Mingle-Mangle
The sentence hides a jumbled word. Unjumble it and choose the word:
The teacher dtpeaesra the two chatty boys and made them sit at opposite ends.
a) departed
b) desperate
c) separated
d) operated
Show answer
c) separated. Departed and operated have no s, and desperate has three e's but only one a, so the letters make separated.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. gathered 2. separatted 3. scattered 4. isolated
a) far away from other places or people
b) no longer together in one place
c) spread over a wide area
d) brought together in one place
Show answer
b) no longer together in one place. Separated has only one t, so separatted is the misspelt word; isolated, scattered and gathered are fine.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. If two gardens are separated by a wall, they are ____.
a) open to each other
b) sharing one flower bed
c) on opposite sides of it
d) joined into one big garden
Show answer
c) on opposite sides of it
2. If an old rope has separated into strands, it has ____.
a) been coiled up neatly
b) become much stronger
c) come apart along its length
d) been tied into a knot
Show answer
c) come apart along its length
