# separate the wheat from the chaff

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/separate-the-wheat-from-the-chaff
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To select only that which is of value.

## Examples

- We must separate the wheat from the chaff to find the best ideas.
- The manager reviewed hundreds of job applications to separate the wheat from the chaff before scheduling any interviews.
- In an era of endless digital information, the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff has become an essential skill for any serious researcher.

## Origin

The image comes from John the Baptist in Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17, who describes one coming with a winnowing fork in his hand to clear the threshing floor, gathering the wheat into the barn and burning the chaff. Winnowing was ordinary farm work: threshed grain was tossed into the air so the breeze carried off the light, worthless husks while the heavy edible kernels fell back down. John turns that everyday sorting into a picture of judgement, the valuable kept and the useless discarded. The literal process is the source of the metaphor. Wheat is what you want; chaff is the papery debris around it. Separating them is the act of keeping the good and letting the rest blow away. To separate the wheat from the chaff now means to distinguish what is valuable from what is not, to sift the worthwhile out of a mass of the mediocre or irrelevant.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.