as in culling
to remove less desirable choices from a group or list
They winnowed the pool of applicants down to a few of the strongest candidates. I tried to winnow out the options that weren't a good value for the price.
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Recent Examples of winnowing
Iowa’s legislative funnel deadline has done its job again, winnowing the list of bills that still could become laws this year.
—
Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register, 20 Mar. 2026
The club is winnowing down its pitching options.
—Evan Grant, Dallas Morning News, 9 Mar. 2026
Is the only pleasure in her winnowing life to be denied?
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2026
All that standing and walking and winnowing down culminated with Tuesday night’s best in show event.
—Poupay Jutharat, Vogue, 4 Feb. 2026
As in baseball, the awards race may be winnowing to the two true outcomes — a world where Best Picture nominees are either a huge Hollywood blockbuster or a foreign-language film from Cannes.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Alegria also sees wild rice production growing using the traditional Indigenous methods of drying, parching, dancing and winnowing at rice camps in northern Wisconsin.
—Frank Vaisvilas, jsonline.com, 4 Dec. 2025
The report resulted in the closure of over half the country’s medical schools, winnowing their numbers down from 148 to 66 over two decades.
—Patrick Aguilar, The Conversation, 17 Oct. 2025
There's something so deeply satisfying about winnowing a huge capital ship down to its smallest components, finding critical welds and junctures, and melting them apart with your heat laser.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 7 Oct. 2025
Stephen Gruber-Miller, Des Moines Register, 20 Mar. 2026
The club is winnowing down its pitching options.
—Evan Grant, Dallas Morning News, 9 Mar. 2026
Is the only pleasure in her winnowing life to be denied?
—Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2026
All that standing and walking and winnowing down culminated with Tuesday night’s best in show event.
—Poupay Jutharat, Vogue, 4 Feb. 2026
As in baseball, the awards race may be winnowing to the two true outcomes — a world where Best Picture nominees are either a huge Hollywood blockbuster or a foreign-language film from Cannes.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Alegria also sees wild rice production growing using the traditional Indigenous methods of drying, parching, dancing and winnowing at rice camps in northern Wisconsin.
—Frank Vaisvilas, jsonline.com, 4 Dec. 2025
The report resulted in the closure of over half the country’s medical schools, winnowing their numbers down from 148 to 66 over two decades.
—Patrick Aguilar, The Conversation, 17 Oct. 2025
There's something so deeply satisfying about winnowing a huge capital ship down to its smallest components, finding critical welds and junctures, and melting them apart with your heat laser.
—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 7 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for winnowing
Verb
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Because not everyone on the island owns a rifle, men often work in groups to locate the animal that has been selected for culling.—
NPR,
NPR,
4 Apr. 2026
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The culling perfectly played into ongoing fears that AI automation is coming for white-collar jobs, a major job market and economic disruption that workers are becoming increasingly worried about — and which clearly has execs salivating.—
Victor Tangermann,
Futurism,
5 Mar. 2026
Verb
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Start by trimming the tough, dry ends off the bunch and chop them into little logs.—
Jesse Szewczyk,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
12 Apr. 2026
-
Get a hedge-and-branch trimming bundle at a huge discount.—
Andrew P. Collins,
The Drive,
9 Apr. 2026
Verb
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This is an unsustainable path if the state hopes to avoid cutting health, education and other priorities.—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
11 Apr. 2026
-
Another option is to remove some of the pups, by cutting under the plants, and gathering the leaves with roots.—
Tom MacCubbin,
The Orlando Sentinel,
11 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The station initially bridged the sudden budget gap last year by reaching out to donors directly and reducing costs to bring down overhead.—
Savannah Sicurella,
AJC.com,
11 Apr. 2026
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The ship suffered substantial damage, and the Reagan administration retaliated by damaging or sinking three Iranian warships and three oil platforms, drastically reducing Tehran’s ability to engage in the gulf.—
Dalia Abdelwahab,
CNN Money,
11 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Private economists are also paring their forecasts for interest rate cuts this year due to the risk that higher oil and fuel prices will reignite inflation, which remained well above the Fed's 2% annual target before the Iran war began.—
Aimee Picchi,
CBS News,
3 Apr. 2026
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On these tracks Slayyyter uses her voice as a much blunter instrument than before, paring back the melisma and amping up the chants, barks, and outright screams.—
Harry Tafoya,
Pitchfork,
2 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Winnowing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/winnowing. Accessed 13 Apr. 2026.
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