fraction
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraction, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus (English fracture), past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (English break).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
fraction (plural fractions)
- A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:
- 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 conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]
- (arithmetic) A ratio of two numbers, the numerator and the denominator, usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar.
- (chemistry) A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
- In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
- A small amount.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:
- 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 to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.
- 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0-1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:
- 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.
- The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
- 1563 March 30, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], OCLC 64451939:
- Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking.
Quotations[edit]
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:fraction.
Usage notes[edit]
- Can be used with either countable or uncountable nouns; however, the word fraction takes the number of the noun it is paired with.
- If used with a plural countable noun, it needs to take a plural verb.
- If used with a singular countable noun or an uncountable noun, it needs to take a singular verb.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from fraction (noun)
- common fraction
- complex fraction
- decimal fraction
- Egyptian fraction
- field of fractions
- fraction bar
- fraction slash
- fractional calculus
- fractional distillation
- fractional ideal
- fractional reserve banking
Related terms[edit]
Terms etymologically related to fraction
Translations[edit]
part of a whole
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arithmetic: ratio
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chemistry: component separated by fractionation
eucharistic service: breaking of the host
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Verb[edit]
fraction (third-person singular simple present fractions, present participle fractioning, simple past and past participle fractioned)
- To divide or break into fractions.
Translations[edit]
to divide into fractions
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References[edit]
- “fraction” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
- “fraction”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
- "fraction" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
Anagrams[edit]
French[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Old French fraction, borrowed from Latin fractio, fractionem.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
fraction f (plural fractions)
- fraction (small amount)
- Je me suis endormi pendant une fraction de secondes. ― I fell asleep for a fraction of a second.
- (mathematics) fraction
- En divisant deux par trois, on obtient une fraction irréductible. ― When dividing two by three, you get an irreducible fraction.
- fraction, breakup
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Descendants[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “fraction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰreg-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Medieval Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ækʃən
- Rhymes:English/ækʃən/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Arithmetic
- en:Chemistry
- English verbs
- en:Numbers
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French lemmas
- French nouns
- French feminine nouns
- French countable nouns
- French terms with usage examples
- fr:Mathematics