Dissolve and separate both come apart, with a difference in how. Dissolve is for a solid to break down and lose its shape into a liquid, or for a body to be formally ended. Separate is to move or keep things apart, or to be distinct — the things remaining. Dissolve breaks a thing down until it is gone or spread through a liquid; separate parts things that remain.
Both involve coming apart, but dissolve breaks a thing down and separate parts things that remain. Dissolve, from dis- 'apart' and solvere 'to loosen', lets a solid lose its shape into a liquid, or ends a body. Separate, from Latin separare 'to part', moves things away from each other or keeps them distinct, all still there. A sugar cube dissolves and loses its shape; two magnets are separated and each remains whole. One loosens a thing apart into a liquid or an ending; the other parts distinct pieces.
dissolve
To dissolve is for a solid to break apart into a liquid until it disappears into it — sugar dissolves in water — or, by extension, for something to fade out or be formally ended (a marriage, a company, a parliament is dissolved). From the Latin dissolvere, 'to loosen apart', from solvere 'to loosen', the root of solve and solvent. A substance dissolves when its particles separate and spread evenly through the liquid — the reverse of what happens when droplets coalesce. Governments dissolve; tension dissolves; a crowd can dissolve into laughter.
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.
| dissolve | separate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | break down into liquid; formally end | move or keep apart; be distinct |
| What is left | a solution, or nothing standing | the things, apart but intact |
| Of what | solids, companies, parliaments | items, groups, the yolk, the sexes |
| Noun | dissolution | separation |
| Example | The sugar dissolved. | Separate the two piles. |
Ask whether a thing loses its shape or the parts stay whole. Dissolve loosens a solid apart into a liquid, or ends a body — a sugar cube clouding away. Separate parts things that each remain — two magnets drawn to their own sides. If a solid breaks down or a body is ended, that is dissolve; if things are parted but stay intact, they are separate.
dissolve
- iStir until the sugar dissolves completely.
- iiThe partnership was dissolved after thirty years.
- iiiThe tablet dissolves in a glass of water.
separate
- iSeparate the ripe fruit from the unripe before packing.
- iiThe referee stepped in to separate the two players.
- iiiSeparate the yolks from the whites.
Both involve things coming apart, but dissolve breaks a thing down — a solid losing its shape, or a body ended — while separate parts things that remain whole and distinct. You separate the yolks (both remain); the sugar dissolves (it loses its shape). Watch separate's spelling — an 'a' in the middle.