Compartmentation

//kəmˈpɑɹtmɛnˈteɪʃn̩// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Division into compartments; compartmentalization.; So as to prevent the spread of fire within a structure.

    "The fire spread rapidly after the building's compartmentation failed."

  2. 2
    Division into compartments; compartmentalization.; So as to prevent the spread of water (or rarely, another fluid) between otherwise watertight compartments (especially on a ship).

    "The Titanics compartmentation' did not stop water from entering rooms."

  3. 3
    The dissemination of information and knowledge between different people or organisations on a need-to-know basis, so as to reduce the risk of espionage should one person or organisation be compromised externally; compartmentalization.

    "Nevertheless the principles of compartmentation of information and need to know are essential to secrecy."

Example

More examples

"The fire spread rapidly after the building's compartmentation failed."

Etymology

From compartment + -ation.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.