Partition

//pɑɹˈtɪ.ʃən// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An action which divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another. countable, uncountable

    "the partitions of Poland"

  2. 2
    the act of dividing or partitioning; separation by the creation of a boundary that divides or keeps apart wordnet
  3. 3
    A part of something that has been divided. countable, uncountable

    "the Russian Partition"

  4. 4
    a vertical structure that divides or separates (as a wall divides one room from another) wordnet
  5. 5
    An approach to division in which one asks what the size of each part is, rather than (as in quotition) how many parts there are. countable, uncountable
Show 12 more definitions
  1. 6
    (anatomy) a structure that separates areas in an organism wordnet
  2. 7
    The division of a territory into two or more autonomous ones. countable, uncountable

    "Monarchies where partition isn't prohibited risk weakening through parcellation and civil wars between the heirs."

  3. 8
    (computer science) the part of a hard disk that is dedicated to a particular operating system or application and accessed as a single unit wordnet
  4. 9
    A vertical structure that divides a room. countable, uncountable

    "a brick partition; lath and plaster partitions"

  5. 10
    That which divides or separates; that by which different things, or distinct parts of the same thing, are separated; boundary; dividing line or space. countable, uncountable

    "No sight could pass / Betwixt the nice partitions of the grass."

  6. 11
    A part divided off by walls; an apartment; a compartment. countable, uncountable

    "Lodged in a small partition."

  7. 12
    The severance of common or undivided interests, particularly in real estate. It may be effected by consent of parties, or by compulsion of law. countable, uncountable
  8. 13
    A section of a hard disk separately formatted. countable, uncountable

    "The epicenter of the disturbance is the partition currently housing a [personality construct array] retrieved from Contender AI 05-032 <+> 0816."

  9. 14
    A division of a database or one of its constituting elements such as tables into separate independent parts. countable, uncountable
  10. 15
    A division of a data stream, such as a messaging queue or topic (often representing a unit of parallelism, and of fault tolerance). countable, uncountable
  11. 16
    A collection of non-empty, disjoint subsets of a set whose union is the set itself (i.e. all elements of the set are contained in exactly one of the subsets). countable, uncountable
  12. 17
    A musical score. countable, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To divide something into parts, sections or shares. transitive

    "to partition a hard drive"

  2. 2
    separate or apportion into sections wordnet
  3. 3
    To divide a region or country into two or more territories with separate political status. transitive

    "Poland was progressively partitioned by Russia, Austria, and Prussia in the late 18th century."

  4. 4
    divide into parts, pieces, or sections wordnet
  5. 5
    To separate or divide a room by a partition (ex. a wall), often use with off. transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

Recorded c.1430, "division into shares, distinction," from Middle English particioun, from Old French particion (modern partition), from Latin partitio, partitionem (“division, portion”), from partitus, the past participle of partire (“to split (up), part(ition)”).

Etymology 2

Recorded c.1430, "division into shares, distinction," from Middle English particioun, from Old French particion (modern partition), from Latin partitio, partitionem (“division, portion”), from partitus, the past participle of partire (“to split (up), part(ition)”).

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