separation

noun

• 1the action or state of moving or being moved apart:the damage that might arise from the separation of parents and children
• the state in which a husband and wife remain married but live apart:legal grounds for divorce or separation [count noun]:she and her husband have agreed to a trial separationSee also legal separation.

• 2the division of something into constituent or distinct elements:prose structured into short sentences with meaningful separation into paragraphs
• the extraction or removal of a specified substance for use or rejection: an improved method of lead separation
• the process of distinguishing between two or more things:religion involved the separation of the sacred and the profane

• 3 (also stereo separation) distinction or difference between the signals carried by the two channels of a stereophonic system: use two transmitters for full stereo separation

• 4short for colour separation.

• 5 Physics & Aeronautics the generation of a turbulent boundary layer between the surface of a body and a moving fluid, or between two fluids moving at different speeds.