distill
/dɪˈstɪl/ IELTSAcademic
verb
- 1.
To make a liquid pure by heating it and then cooling the vapor back into liquid. This is often done to clean water or make alcohol.
- They distill water for the lab.
- The factory distills alcohol from grain.
- 2.
To take the most important parts from a lot of information or ideas. It means to make something shorter and clearer.
- Can you distill the report into three points?
- She distilled the lesson into simple steps.
Adinary Nuance
Distill is close to extract, refine, and condense, but it has a stronger idea of careful separation. Use it when you remove extra material and keep only the pure or most important part. Writers often choose distill for ideas, not just liquids.
In other languages
- Vietnamese
- chưng cất
- Spanish
- destilar
- Chinese
- 蒸馏
- Japanese
- 蒸留する
- Korean
- 증류하다
Etymology
Distill comes from Latin distillare, meaning “to drip down.” It entered English through Old French in the 14th century.
Common phrases
distill waterdistill alcoholdistill the essencedistill information
Synonyms
Related words
Frequently asked questions
- Is distill only used for liquids?
- No. It also means to make ideas shorter and clearer.
- What is the difference between distill and condense?
- Condense means shorten. Distill means shorten and keep the most important part.
- Is distill formal or informal?
- It is fairly formal and common in writing, study, and business.
- Can I say distill a report?
- Yes. It sounds natural when you mean to make a report shorter and clearer.