filter definition | Dictionary.com

fil⋅ter

[fil-ter]

–noun

1.	any substance, as cloth, paper, porous porcelain, or a layer of charcoal or sand, through which liquid or gas is passed to remove suspended impurities or to recover solids.

2.	any device, as a tank or tube, containing such a substance for filtering.

3.	any of various analogous devices, as for removing dust from air or impurities from tobacco smoke, or for eliminating certain kinds of light rays.

4.	Informal. a filter-tipped cigarette or cigar.

5.	Photography. a lens screen of dyed gelatin or glass for controlling the rendering of color or for diminishing the intensity of light.

6.	Electronics, Physics. a circuit or device that passes certain frequencies and blocks others.

7.	Mathematics. a collection of subsets of a topological space, having the properties that the intersection of two subsets in the collection is a subset in the collection and that any set containing a subset in the collection is in the collection.

–verb (used with object)

8.	to remove by the action of a filter.

9.	to act as a filter for; to slow or partially obstruct the passage of: The thick leaves filtered the sunlight.

10.	to pass through or as through a filter.

–verb (used without object)

11.	to pass or slip through slowly, as through an obstruction or a filter: Enemy agents managed to filter into the embattled country.

Origin:
1375–1425; late ME filtre < ML filtrum felt, piece of felt used to strain liquids < Gmc; see felt ²

Related forms:

fil⋅ter⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
11. penetrate, sift, seep, trickle, leak.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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fil·ter (fĭl'tər)

1. A porous material through which a liquid or gas is passed in order to separate the fluid from suspended particulate matter.
2. A device containing such a material, especially one used to extract impurities from air or water.
3. Any of various electric, electronic, acoustic, or optical devices used to reject signals, vibrations, or radiations of certain frequencies while allowing others to pass.
4. A colored glass or other transparent material used to select the wavelengths of light allowed to reach a photosensitive material.
1. Any of various electric, electronic, acoustic, or optical devices used to reject signals, vibrations, or radiations of certain frequencies while allowing others to pass.
2. A colored glass or other transparent material used to select the wavelengths of light allowed to reach a photosensitive material.
Computer Science A program or routine that blocks access to data that meet a particular criterion: a Web filter that screens out vulgar sites.

v. fil·tered, fil·ter·ing, fil·ters

v. tr.

To pass (a liquid or gas) through a filter.
To remove by passing through a filter: filter out impurities.
Computer Science To use a filter to block access to (a website or Web content).

v. intr.

To pass through or as if through a filter: Light filtered through the blinds.
To come or go gradually and in small groups: The audience filtered back into the hall.

[Middle English filtre, from Old French, from Medieval Latin filtrum, of Germanic origin; see pel-⁵ in Indo-European roots.]
fil'ter·er n., fil'ter·less adj.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Filter

Fil"ter\, n. [F. filtre, the same word as feutre felt, LL. filtrum, feltrum, felt, fulled wool, this being used for straining liquors. See Feuter.] Any porous substance, as cloth, paper, sand, or charcoal, through which water or other liquid may passed to cleanse it from the solid or impure matter held in suspension; a chamber or device containing such substance; a strainer; also, a similar device for purifying air.

Filter bed, a pond, the bottom of which is a filter composed of sand gravel.

Filter gallery, an underground gallery or tunnel, alongside of a stream, to collect the water that filters through the intervening sand and gravel; -- called also infiltration gallery.

Filter

Fil"ter\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Filtered; p. pr. & vb. n. Filtering] [Cf. F. filter. See Filter, n., and cf. Filtrate.] To purify or defecate, as water or other liquid, by causing it to pass through a filter.

Filtering paper, or Filter paper, a porous unsized paper, for filtering.

Filter

Fil"ter\, v. i. To pass through a filter; to percolate.

Filter

Fil"ter\, n. Same as Philter.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : filter

Spanish: filtro,

German: der Filter, Filter-…,

Japanese: 濾過器

More Translations »

filter

A computer software program that selectively screens out incoming information.

Note: Spam may be the target of a filter, or parents may use a filter designed to prevent their child's access to pornographic or violent Web pages.

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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filter

n. [very common; orig. Unix, now also in MS-DOS] A program that processes an input data stream into an output data stream in some well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a `pipeline' (see plumbing). Compare sponge.

Jargon File 4.2.0
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filter (n.)

c.1400, from M.L. filtrum "felt," which was used to strain impurities from liquid, from W.Gmc. *filtiz (see felt). Of cigarettes, from 1908. The verb is from 1576; the fig. sense is from 1830.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Filter

A set of criteria used to help an investor narrow down which financial instruments or conditions of financial instruments are the most profitable.

Investopedia Commentary

Most beginner investors feel overwhelmed by the large number of financial products available in each type of market. Filters help narrow down the investor's or trader's search, so the decision of which securities to trade is less complicated. Filters are not limited to finding companies by stock screeners technical analysis tools can also help an investor or trader find a particular financial instrument. For example, if a trader wants to find financial instruments that are trading above their 200-day moving average, he or she can use a filter to find such instruments.

Main Entry: ¹fil·ter
Pronunciation: 'fil-t&r
Function: noun
1 : a porous article or mass (as of paper or sand) through which agas or liquid is passed to separate out matter in suspension
2 : an apparatus containing a filter medium
3 a : a device or material for suppressing orminimizing waves or oscillations of certain frequencies (as of electricity, light, or sound) b : a transparent material (as colored glass) that absorbs light of certain wavelengths orcolors selectively and is used for modifying light that reaches a sensitized photographic material called also color filter

Main Entry: ²filter
Function: verb
Inflected Forms: fil·tered; fil·ter·ing /-t(&-)ri[ng]/
transitivesenses
1 : to subject to the action of a filter
2 : to remove by means of a filter filter intransitive senses
: to pass or movethrough or as if through a filter

filter fil·ter (fĭl'tər)
n.

A porous material through which a liquid or gas is passed in order to separate the fluid from suspended particulate matter.
A device containing such a substance.
Any of various electric, electronic, acoustic, or optical devices used to reject signals, vibrations, or radiations of certain frequencies while passing others.
A translucent screen, used in both diagnostic and therapeutic radiology, that permits the passage of rays having desirable levels of energy.
A device used in spectrophotometric analysis to isolate a segment of the spectrum.

v. fil·tered, fil·ter·ing, fil·ters

To pass a liquid or gas through a filter.
To remove by passing through a filter.
To pass through or as if through a filter.

fil'ter·er n.
fil'ter·less adj.

filter (fĭl'tər) Pronunciation Key

A material that has very tiny holes and is used to separate out solid particles contained in a liquid or gas that is passed through it.
A device that allows signals with certain properties, such as signals lying in a certain frequency range, to pass while blocking the passage of others. For example, filters on photographic lenses allow only certain frequencies of light to enter the camera, while polarizing filters allow only light polarized along a given plane to pass. Radio tuners are filters that allow frequencies of only a narrow range to pass into an amplification circuit.

filter
1. (Originally Unix, now also MS-DOS) A program that processes an input data stream into an output data stream in some well-defined way, and does no I/O to anywhere else except possibly on error conditions; one designed to be used as a stage in a pipeline (see plumbing). Compare sponge.
2. (functional programming) A higher-order function which takes a predicate and a list and returns those elements of the list for which the predicate is true. In Haskell:
filter p [] = [] filter p (x:xs) = if p x then x : rest else rest where rest = filter p xs
See also filter promotion.
[The Jargon File]

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