part

A portion; a component.

Adjective

  1. Fractional; partial.
    • Fred was part owner of the car.

Origin

From Middle English part, from the noun.

Adverb

  1. Partly; partially; fractionally.
    • Part finished
  2. to a partial degree.
    • My Native American friend is also part German and part French.

Derived

part-finance part-fund take part

Noun

  1. A portion; a component.
    • Gaul is divided into three parts.
    • I was in Australia part of last year.
    • Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all. - 1992, Rudolf...

    1. A fraction of a whole.

    2. A distinct element of something larger.

      • The parts of a chainsaw include the chain, engine, and handle.
      • It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake. - 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The...
      • A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via...

    3. A group inside a larger group.

    4. Share, especially of a profit.

      • I want my part of the bounty.

    5. A unit of relative proportion in a mixture.

      • The mixture comprises one part sodium hydroxide and ten parts water.
      • This pastry is one part butter to three parts flour.

    6. 3.5 centiliters of one ingredient in a mixed drink.

    7. A section of a document.

      • Please turn to Part I, Chapter 2.

    8. A section of land; an area of a country or other territory; region.

      • […] the Faery knight / Besought that Damzell suffer him depart, / And yield him readie passage to that other part. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for...

    9. (mathematics, dated) A factor.

      • 3 is a part of 12.

    10. (US) A room in a public building, especially a courtroom.

    11. (colloquial, euphemistic) A private part; genitalia.

      • She wasn't wearing her medieval clothes anymore — she wasn't wearing anything. She was completely starkers — completely Billy bollocks. You could see everything even her part. - 2022, Herschel K. Stroganoff, The Herc...
  2. Duty; responsibility.
    • to do one’s part

    Synonyms: hand

    1. Position or role (especially in a play).

      • We all have a part to play.
      • We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters...
      • He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights,[…], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part...

      Synonyms: hand

    2. (music) The melody played or sung by a particular instrument, voice, or group of instruments or voices, within a polyphonic piece.

      • The first violin part in this concerto is very challenging.

      Synonyms: hand

    3. Each of two contrasting sides of an argument, debate etc.; "hand".

      • Meaning to gaine thereby, that the fruition of life, cannot perfectly be pleaſing vnto vs, if we ſtand in any feare to looſe it. A man might nevertheleſſe ſay on the contrarie part, that we embrace and claſp this good...
      • He that is not against us is on our part. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 9:40:
      • Make whole kingdoms take her brother's part. - 1650, Edmund Waller, to my Lady Morton (epistle)

      Synonyms: hand

  3. The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions.
    • The part of his hair was slightly to the left.

    Synonyms: parting

  4. In the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, a unit of time equivalent to 3⅓ seconds.
  5. A constituent of character or capacity; quality; faculty; talent; usually in the plural with a collective sense.
    • which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. - 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
    • men of considerable parts - 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […],...
    • great quickness of parts - 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman,...

Origin

From Middle English part, from Old English part (“part”) and Old French part (“part”); both from Latin partem, accusative of pars (“piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson, part, member”), from Proto-Indo-European *par-, *per- (“to sell, exchange”). Akin to Latin portiō (“a portion, part”), parāre (“to make ready, prepare”). Displaced Middle English del, dele (“part”) (from Old English dǣl (“part, distribution”) > Modern English deal (“portion; amount”)), Middle English dale, dole (“part, portion”) (from Old English dāl (“portion”) > Modern English dole), Middle English sliver (“part, portion”) (from Middle English sliven (“to cut, cleave”), from Old English (tō)slifan (“to split”)).

Forms

parts

Synonyms

piece portion component element faction party position role parting shed shoad shode chelek part

Hyponyms

car part spare part portion fraction element component member constituent piece section division partition ingredient

Related

apartment depart impart partage partial participant participate participation participial participialize participle particle particular partisan partisanism partisanry partisanship partite partition partitioner partitive partner party

Derived

afterpart art and part auto part bad part of town bairn's part be part of life's rich pageant be part of life's rich pattern be part of life's rich tapestry best part of better part of bit part body-part body part breeches part character part counterpart daypart dead's part discretion is the better part of valor discretion is the better part of valour do one's part dress the part foreign parts forepart

Verb

  1. To leave the company of (each other, or someone/something [with with or from]).
    • He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
    • It was strange to him that a father should feel no tenderness at parting with an only son. - 1879, Anthony Trollope, John Caldigate:
    • There is an hour when I must part / From all I hold most dear - 1841, “There is an Hour when I must Part”, Andrew Reed (lyrics):
  2. To divide in two.
    • to part the curtains
    • I run the canoe into a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe from the outside. - 1884 December 10, Mark Twain...
  3. To cut hair with a parting.
  4. To be divided in two or separated.
    • A rope parts. His hair parts in the middle.
    • I see the Red Sea part in front of me I see the desert clouds bleed above me I'm with the prophets on the final destiny We'll fight the heathens and the ghost enemy This is the prophecy - 2004, “Prophecy”, in Max...
  5. To divide up; to share.
    • He that hath ij. cootes, lett hym parte with hym that hath none: And he that hath meate, let him do lyke wyse. - 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer],...
    • He left three sonnes, his famous progeny, / Borne of faire Inogene of Italy; / Mongst whom he parted his imperiall state […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John...
    • They parted my raiment among them. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 19:24:
  6. To have a part or share; to partake.
    • They shall part alike. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 30:24:
  7. To separate or disunite; to remove from contact or contiguity; to sunder.
    • The narrow seas that part / The French and English. - c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
    • While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 24:51:
  8. To hold apart; to stand or intervene between.
    • The stumbling night did part our weary powers. - c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:...
  9. To separate by a process of extraction, elimination, or secretion.
    • to part gold from silver
    • The liver minds his own affair,[…]/ And parts and strains the vital juices. - 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber...
  10. To leave; to quit.
    • since presently your souls must part your bodies - 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
  11. To leave (an IRC channel).
    • He parted the channel saying "SHUTUP!"[…]so I queried him, asking if there was something I could do[…]maybe talk[…]so we did[…]since then, I've been seeing him on IRC every day (really can't imagine him not being on IRC...

Origin

From Middle English parten, from Old French partir.

Forms

parts parting parted

Derived

a fool and his money are soon parted mispart overpart partable part brass rags part company part ways part with till death do us part till death us do part underpart unpart