Scatter and separate both move things apart, with a difference in how. Scatter is to throw or send things in different directions so they spread out irregularly, suddenly and at random. Separate is to move or keep things apart, or to be distinct — often deliberately, and usually of a few things. Scatter flings many things wide; separate parts a few, or keeps them distinct.
Both put things apart, but scatter is wide and random while separate is controlled. Scatter, close to 'shatter', throws things out in every direction with no pattern. Separate, from Latin separare 'to part', moves things away from each other or keeps them distinct, usually on purpose. A break shot scatters the balls across the table; a referee separates two fighters. One flings many apart at random; the other parts a few, deliberately.
scatter
To scatter is to send things flying apart so they land here and there with no order — a handful of gravel flung across a path, papers blown off a desk, a flock startled into the air. The word stresses suddenness and irregularity: what scatters is strewn unevenly and left wherever it falls, not neatly distributed. It works both ways, much like its cousin disperse — a crowd can scatter, or police can scatter it — but where disperse suggests an even thinning-away, scatter keeps that sense of a sudden, random fling.
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.
| scatter | separate | |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | throw things apart in all directions | move or keep apart; be distinct |
| Manner | sudden, random, wide | deliberate, controlled |
| Number | many, flung everywhere | usually a few, parted or kept apart |
| Often with | balls, papers, seeds, a crowd | items, groups, the yolk, the sexes |
| Noun | scattering / a scatter | separation |
| Example | The papers scattered. | Separate the two piles. |
Ask whether many fly apart at random or a few are parted on purpose. Scatter flings things wide with no pattern — a racked triangle of balls broken across a table. Separate moves a few things apart, or keeps them distinct — two magnets drawn to their own sides. If many things are thrown apart at random, that is scatter; if things are deliberately parted or kept distinct, they are separate.
scatter
- iA gust scattered the papers across the yard.
- iiThe crowd scattered the moment the alarm sounded.
- iiiShe scattered the seeds by hand across the bed.
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 move things apart, but scatter is sudden, random and wide, while separate is deliberate and controlled, often of a few things or into two groups. You scatter seeds across a bed; you separate the yolks from the whites. One flings apart with no pattern; the other parts on purpose. Watch separate's spelling — an 'a' in the middle.