partition
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An action which divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pahrtishuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɑɹˈtɪʃən
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.
noun
An action which divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another.
That which divides or separates; that by which different things, or distinct parts of the same thing, are separated; boundary; dividing line or space.
A part of something that has been divided.
A vertical structure that divides or separates (as a wall divides one room from another)
A part divided off by walls; an apartment; a compartment.
The division of a territory into two or more autonomous ones.
verb
Divide into parts, pieces, or sections
“The Arab peninsula was partitioned by the British.”
Separate or apportion into sections
To divide a region or country into two or more territories with separate political status.
To separate or divide a room by a partition (ex. a wall), often use with off.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An action which divides a thing into parts, or separates one thing from another.
Used this way, partition is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- 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 partition
- “The Arab peninsula was partitioned by the British.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Divides / vertical
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An analysis into mutually exclusive categories.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Divide into parts, pieces, or sections.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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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.