sifted

Sifted is the past participle of sift, a verb with two principal senses: physical separation and careful examination. Physically, to sift is to pass a material through a sieve to remove lumps or separate by particle size.

In cooking and baking, sifted flour or sugar refers to dry ingredients that have been passed through a sieve, producing a lighter texture and better mixing with other ingredients. In agriculture or geology, sifted soil or ore has been processed to separate fine particles from coarser material.

In information processing and research, to sift through information means to examine large amounts of data or evidence in order to identify relevant items or to discard irrelevant ones. The phrase "sifted" or "sifted results" implies that the material has been filtered or curated according to criteria.

As an adjective, sifted can describe things that have been filtered or refined, for example "sifted evidence" or "sifted data." However, more common is its use as the participle of the verb rather than a standalone adjective. See also: sifting, sieve.