Narrow down means reduce the number of options by cutting the ones you don't want: there were twelve designs, but we've narrowed them down to two. People narrow down searches, lists of hotels, candidates and dates. The final choice is still ahead, just easier: adding the date helped me narrow down the search.
Want to use narrow down in conversation?
Write a sentence — we'll show the mistakes right away and suggest how to say it more naturally.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
narrow down a list / search; narrow it down to something; from X to Y
- We narrowed the hotel list down to four places near the station.
- Adding the date helped me narrow down the search.
- There were twelve designs, but we've narrowed them down to two.
What changed
First versionI've narrowed down it to three possible dates.
RevisionI've narrowed it down to three possible dates.
Most verbs take the object right after them, so narrowed down it looks logical. But with a phrasal verb, a pronoun goes between the parts: narrowed it down. How many are left is shown by to: narrowed it down to three dates.
Choose and settle on mean make the final choice: we settled on the blue design. Narrow down only removes options: we narrowed it down to two designs, and the debate goes on. Zero in on means focus on one specific option.
Your turn
Six options were removed and two remain. We narrowed the choice down ___ two.
Show the answer
to — To shows how many are left: narrowed down to two. By two would mean only two options were removed.
Describe how you chose a flat, a gift or a trip, and how many options you narrowed it down to.
We narrowed the list down to three flats that are within walking distance of the station.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.