fraction
A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
Noun
- A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
- With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound...
- A ratio of two numbers (numerator and denominator), usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar called the vinculum or, alternatively, in sequence on the same line and separated by a solidus (diagonal bar).
- Gasoline prices show the mill as a fraction, for example $3.59+⁹⁄₁₀.
- A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
- In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
- […] The bread, when it is consecrated and made sacramental, is the body of our Lord; and the fraction and distribution of it is the communication of that body, which died for us upon the cross. - (Can we date this...
- A small amount.
- I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me...
- After kick-off was delayed because of crowd congestion, Torquay went closest to scoring in a cagey opening 30 minutes, when Danny Stevens saw a fierce shot from the edge of the area swerve a fraction wide. - 2011...
- The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
- Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking. - 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […],...
Origin
Etymology tree Middle English fraccioun English fraction From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraccion, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus, past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (English break). Doublet of frazione.
Forms
Synonyms
Hypernyms
Related
fractal fractious fracture fragile fragileness fragility fragment frail frailness frailty frangibility frangible frangibleness infract infraction infrangibility infrangible infrangibleness infringe infringeable infringee infringement infringer infringest
Derived
abfraction biofraction case fraction common fraction complex fraction continued fraction continued-fraction decimal fraction dyadic fraction Egyptian fraction ejection fraction Euler's continued fraction formula field of fractions finite continued fraction fractile fractionable fractional fractional calculus fractional distillation fractional ideal fractionalism fractionalist fractionality fractionalization
Verb
- To divide or break into fractions.
- To fractionate.