Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#FILTERCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#FILTER filtre, from Medieval LatinCategory:English terms derived from Medieval Latin#FILTER filtrum (compare also Old French feutre (“felt; filter”)), from FrankishCategory:English terms derived from Frankish#FILTER *filtir, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:English terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#FILTER *felt. See felt. Doublet of phinCategory:English doublets#FILTER.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪltə/Category:English 2-syllable words#FILTERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɪltɚ/Category:English 2-syllable words#FILTERCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#FILTER
• Rhymes: -ɪltə(ɹ)Category:Rhymes:English/ɪltə(ɹ)#FILTERCategory:Rhymes:English/ɪltə(ɹ)/2 syllables#FILTER
• Homophone: philterCategory:English terms with homophones#FILTER

Noun

filter (plural filters)Category:English lemmas#FILTERCategory:English nouns#FILTERCategory:English countable nouns#FILTERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. A device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another.
   • 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 152:

     Then add four drops of crocodile semen, and pass the mixture through a filter.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

2. Electronics or software that separates unwanted signals (for example noise) from wanted signals or that attenuates selected frequencies.
3. Any item, mechanism, device, or procedure that acts to separate or isolate.

   He runs an email filter to catch the junk mail.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

   • 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:

     In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. That means about $165 billion was spent not on drumming up business, but on annoying people, creating landfill and cluttering spam filters.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

4. (figurative) Self-restraint in speech.

   He's got no filter, and he's always offending people as a result.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

   • 2026 January 30, Judy Berman, “Catherine O’Hara Portrayed the Vain and Delusional With a Radical Lack of Vanity”, in TIME‎, archived from the original on 1 February 2026:

     These were women with enormous feelings and, almost always, no filter to mediate their expression of them.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

5. (mathematicsCategory:en:Mathematics#FILTER, order theory) A non-empty upper set (of a partially ordered set) which is closed under binary infima (a.k.a. meets).

   The collection of cofinite subsets of ℝ is a filter under inclusion: it includes the intersection of every pair of its members, and includes every superset of every cofinite set.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

   If (1) the universal set (here, the set of natural numbers) were called a "large" set, (2) the superset of any "large" set were also a "large" set, and (3) the intersection of a pair of "large" sets were also a "large" set, then the set of all "large" sets would form a filter.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

6. (photographyCategory:en:Photography#FILTER) A translucent object placed in the light path of a camera to remove certain wavelengths (colors), or a computer program that simulates such an effect.
7. (social mediaCategory:en:Social media#FILTER) An appearance-altering digital image effect.
   • 2013, Patent Pending, “All-Star Hipster”, in Brighter:

     He don't need no filter posting pictures!

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

Verb

filter (third-person singular simple present filters, present participle filtering, simple past and past participle filtered)Category:English lemmas#FILTERCategory:English verbs#FILTERCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#FILTER) To sort, sift, or isolate.

   This strainer should filter out the large particles.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

   • 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 5, in The Subtle Minotaur‎:

     “You have probably never seen anything like this before, Mr. Toler. It is baleen, or if you prefer it, whalebone, taken from the mouth of the bowhead whale. It is used by the whale to filter its food.”

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

   • 1992, Chris C. Bissell, David A. Chapman, Digital signal transmission (2nd edition), Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 147:

     Receivers often incorporate digital equalisers to 'mop up' slight intersymbol interference after initial filtering at the receiver.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

   • 2022 October 25, Willy Staley, “The Try Guys and the Prison of Online Fame”, in The New York Times Magazine‎:

     But fans’ emotions are no longer filtered through ticket or album sales; they’re heard directly, constantly, at all hours, on all the platforms people visit to generate and extinguish bad feelings in a never-ending cycle.

     Category:English terms with quotations#FILTER

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#FILTER) To diffuse; to cause to be less concentrated or focused.

   The leaves of the trees filtered the light.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

3. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#FILTER) To pass through a filter or to act as though passing through a filter.

   The water filtered through the rock and soil.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

4. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#FILTER) To move slowly or gradually; to come or go a few at a time.

   The crowd filtered into the theater.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

5. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#FILTER) To ride a motorcycle between lanes on a road

   I can skip past all the traffic on my bike by filtering.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

6. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#FILTER, derogatoryCategory:English derogatory terms#FILTER, fandom slangCategory:English fandom slang#FILTER) To be discouraged where a connoisseur or hardcore fan would not.

   Most people get filtered by that episode.Category:English terms with usage examples#FILTER

Related terms

• filtrate
• filtration
• filtride

Anagrams

• fertil, Trefil, lifter, firtle, relift, filtre, trifle

Noun

filter n (singular definite filtret or filteret, plural indefinite filtre)Category:Danish lemmas#FILTERCategory:Danish nouns#FILTERCategory:Danish entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Danish neuter nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter

Etymology

Borrowed from FrenchCategory:Dutch terms borrowed from French#FILTERCategory:Dutch terms derived from French#FILTER filtre or GermanCategory:Dutch terms borrowed from German#FILTERCategory:Dutch terms derived from German#FILTER Filter, from LatinCategory:Dutch terms derived from Latin#FILTER filtrum.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɪl.tər/Category:Dutch terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER

• Audio:

  (file)

  Category:Dutch terms with audio pronunciation#FILTER
• Hyphenation: fil‧ter

Noun

filter m or n (plural filters, diminutive filtertje n)Category:Dutch lemmas#FILTERCategory:Dutch nouns#FILTERCategory:Dutch nouns with plural in -s#FILTERCategory:Dutch entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Dutch masculine nouns#FILTERCategory:Dutch neuter nouns#FILTERCategory:Dutch nouns with multiple genders#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. a filter (dense mesh or fabric used for filtration)
2. a cigarette filter
3. a light filter
4. a camera filter

References

Anagrams

• flirte

Pronunciation

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

  Category:German terms with audio pronunciation#FILTER

Verb

filterCategory:German non-lemma forms#FILTERCategory:German verb forms#FILTERCategory:German entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. inflection of filtern:
   1. first-person singular present
   2. singular imperative

Etymology

From GermanCategory:Hungarian terms derived from German#FILTER Filter, from Medieval LatinCategory:Hungarian terms derived from Medieval Latin#FILTER filtrum.^[1]

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfiltɛr]Category:Hungarian terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER
• Hyphenation: fil‧ter
• Rhymes: -ɛrCategory:Rhymes:Hungarian/ɛr#FILTERCategory:Rhymes:Hungarian/ɛr/2 syllables#FILTER

Noun

filterCategory:Hungarian lemmas#FILTERCategory:Hungarian nouns#FILTERCategory:Hungarian entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter (any device that separates one substance from another)
2. cigarette filter

References

Etymology

From DutchCategory:Indonesian terms borrowed from Dutch#FILTERCategory:Indonesian terms derived from Dutch#FILTER filter, from FrenchCategory:Indonesian terms derived from French#FILTER filtre, from Medieval LatinCategory:Indonesian terms derived from Medieval Latin#FILTER filtrum (compare also Old French feutre (“felt; filter”)), from FrankishCategory:Indonesian terms derived from Frankish#FILTER *filtir, from Proto-West GermanicCategory:Indonesian terms derived from Proto-West Germanic#FILTER *felt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfɪltər]Category:Indonesian 2-syllable words#FILTERCategory:Indonesian terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER
• Hyphenation: fil‧têr

Noun

filterCategory:Indonesian lemmas#FILTERCategory:Indonesian nouns#FILTERCategory:Indonesian entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter
   1. a device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance; any device that separates one substance from another
   2. (electronicsCategory:id:Electronics#FILTER, physicsCategory:id:Physics#FILTER) electronics or software that separates unwanted signals (for example noise) from wanted signals or that attenuates selected frequencies

Further reading

• “filter”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

Etymology

Borrowed from PolishCategory:Kashubian terms borrowed from Polish#FILTERCategory:Kashubian terms derived from Polish#FILTER filtr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfil.tɛr/Category:Kashubian terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER
• Rhymes: -iltɛrCategory:Rhymes:Kashubian/iltɛr#FILTERCategory:Rhymes:Kashubian/iltɛr/2 syllables#FILTER
• Syllabification: fil‧ter

Noun

filter m inanCategory:Kashubian lemmas#FILTERCategory:Kashubian nouns#FILTERCategory:Kashubian entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Kashubian masculine nouns#FILTERCategory:Kashubian inanimate nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter (device which separates a suspended, dissolved, or particulate matter from a fluid, solution, or other substance)

   Synonym: czëszcz

Further reading

• Jan Trepczyk (1994), “filtr”, in Słownik polsko-kaszubski (in Kashubian), volumes 1–2
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011), “filtr”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi‎

Etymology

From FrenchCategory:Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from French#FILTER filtre.

Noun

filter n (definite singular filteret or filtret, indefinite plural filter or filtre, definite plural filtra or filtrene)Category:Norwegian Bokmål lemmas#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Bokmål nouns#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Bokmål entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Bokmål neuter nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter

References

• “filter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From FrenchCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from French#FILTER filtre.

Noun

filter n (definite singular filteret, indefinite plural filter, definite plural filtera)Category:Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk nouns#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Norwegian Nynorsk neuter nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter

References

• “filter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Alternative forms

• fìltar

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fǐlter/Category:Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation#FILTER
• Hyphenation: fil‧ter

Noun

fìlter m inan (Cyrillic spelling фѝлтер)Category:Serbo-Croatian lemmas#FILTERCategory:Serbo-Croatian nouns#FILTERCategory:Serbo-Croatian masculine inanimate nouns#FILTERCategory:Serbo-Croatian entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Serbo-Croatian masculine nouns#FILTERCategory:Serbo-Croatian inanimate nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. filter

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

  Category:Swedish terms with audio pronunciation#FILTER

Noun

filter nCategory:Swedish lemmas#FILTERCategory:Swedish nouns#FILTERCategory:Swedish entries with incorrect language header#FILTERCategory:Swedish neuter nouns#FILTERCategory:Pages with entries#FILTERCategory:Pages with 11 entries#FILTER

1. a filter (similar senses to English)

References

• “filter”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “filter”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “filter”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

Anagrams

• fertil