section
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sehkshuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈsɛkʃən
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
A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
An act or instance of cutting.
geometry
The area created by a plane cutting through a solid
A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
music
A division of an orchestra containing all instruments of the same class
A cross-section (image that shows an object as if cut along a plane).
verb
To cut, divide or separate into pieces.
To reduce to the degree of thinness required for study with the microscope.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
Used this way, section 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 section
- “He always turns first to the business section.”noun
- “Sections from the left ventricle showed diseased tissue.”noun
- “A section of a fishing rod.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A piece of furniture made up of sections that can be arranged individually or together.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A work crew assigned to a section of a railroad.
A laborer assigned to a section gang.
Someone who teaches a section of a large college course.
A soldier who received a Section Eight discharge as unfit for military service.
A curve generated by the intersection of a plane and a circular cone.
A section created by a plane cutting a solid perpendicular to its longest axis.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Of or relating to a cross section.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: to cut or divide or separate into pieces
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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.