divide
verb · noun
Simple meaning
Separate into parts or portions.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
dihvydSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dɪˈvaɪd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
Separate into parts or portions
“Divide the cake into three equal parts.”
transitive
To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
transitive
To share (something) by dividing it.
transitive
To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.
To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
noun
An act of dividing.
A serious disagreement between two groups of people (typically producing tension or hostility)
A distancing between two people or things.
A thing that divides.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Separate into parts or portions
Used this way, divide is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“Divide the cake into three equal parts.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use divide
- “Divide the cake into three equal parts.”verb
- “Can you divide 49 by seven?”verb
- “The mountain range divides the two countries.”verb
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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Separated into parts or pieces.
A taxonomist who classifies organisms into many groups on the basis of relatively minor characteristics.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A highway divided down the middle by a barrier that separates traffic going in different directions.
A conceptual separation or distinction.
Resistors connected in series across a voltage source.
The watershed of a continent (especially the watershed of North America formed by a series of mountain ridges extending from Alaska to Mexico).
Resistors connected in series across a voltage source.
That part of the continental divide formed by the Rocky Mountains in the United States.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.