Meet and separate are opposites. To meet is for separate things to come together at the same point — two roads meet, friends meet, paths converge and go on as one. To separate is the reverse — to move or keep things apart, or to sort a mixture (a fence separates two gardens; separate the yolk from the white). Meet brings things together; separate pulls them apart so a clean gap opens between them.
One word closes the distance between things, the other opens it. Meet, from the Old English metan, is separate things arriving at one point — and from there they may continue together. Separate, from the Latin separare ('to disjoin'), draws apart what was together, or sorts a mixture into distinct pieces, leaving space between them. So old friends meet at a station, while a low wall separates two fields. Meet is a coming-together; separate a moving-apart — and note that separate's adjective (distinct, unconnected) is the settled state that meeting undoes.
meet
To meet is for separate things to come together at one place or moment — two roads meet, old friends meet, a river meets the sea. From the Old English mētan, it has always carried this coming-together, but its real academic value is abstract: to meet a deadline, a target, or a demand is to be enough for it, to rise to what is asked. Where independent paths converge on the same point, they meet — and from that point they may go on together.
separate
To separate is to move things apart or to keep them apart — you separate two fighters, separate the yolk from the white, separate a class into groups. From the Latin separare, 'to disjoin'. Where you divide a whole into parts, to separate more often pulls already-distinct things away from each other, or sorts a mixture. As an adjective — and pronounced differently — separate means distinct or unconnected: three separate rooms, a separate issue. It is the quiet opposite of join.
| meet | separate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | come together at one point | move or keep apart; sort |
| Direction | apart → together | together → apart |
| The point/gap | a shared meeting point | a clean gap between |
| Abstract sense | meet a deadline / demand | a separate issue (distinct) |
| Often with | meet at · meet with | separate from · separate into |
| Noun | meeting | separation |
Junction against pulled-apart magnets. Meet is two roads climbing to the same point, the travellers arriving together and taking one road on — distance closing to a shared point. Separate is two clamped magnets drawn apart until the pull snaps and a clean gap opens — distance opening between distinct pieces. So meet brings things together; separate holds them apart. If separate paths converge and join, they meet; if joined things are drawn apart, they separate.
meet
- iTwo winding roads meet at the old stone bridge and run on as one.
- iiWe agreed to meet outside the library at noon.
- iiiThe new plant was built to meet the rising demand for batteries.
separate
- iA low fence separates the two gardens without blocking the view.
- iiReferees rushed in to separate the players before it turned into a brawl.
- iiiAfter college the friends went their separate ways.
Clean opposites in the physical sense — together versus apart — but each keeps a side sense: meet a deadline ('be sufficient for') and the adjective separate ('distinct, unconnected'). Mind separate's spelling (sep-A-rate) and its heteronym pronunciations (verb /ˈsepəreɪt/, adjective /ˈseprət/), and meet's irregular past tense (met, never 'meeted').