A sifter serves for separating coarse particles from a particle-carrying stream during the manufacture of wood material panels, in particular wood fiber panels. The sifter has a housing forming a chamber and having a material inlet for admitting the particle-carrying stream to the chamber, at least one air inlet below the material inlet for admitting an air stream to the chamber, an exhaust-air outlet for conveying air and fine particles from the chamber, and a coarse-particle outlet for conveying coarse particles out of the chamber. An upper front wall of the housing above the air inlet is oriented at least partially at an angle to the vertical. An upper edge of the air inlet is either vertically aligned above a lower edge of the air inlet or projects by an amount beyond the lower edge into the chamber.