Fractional

How to spell fractional

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce fractional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does fractional mean?

1. adjectiveConstituting only a small part or portion of something; relating to fractions.

Fractional in a sentence

• The firm now offers fractional ownership of holiday homes.

• The delay added only a fractional amount to the overall cost.

Where does fractional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb frangere, which literally meant 'to break' or 'to shatter'. From its past participle fractus came the noun fractio, a 'breaking', which medieval mathematicians used for a quantity made by breaking a whole into parts; that is the direct ancestor of the English noun 'fraction', borrowed through Old French in the 1300s. The adjective 'fractional' was formed later in English by adding the suffix -al, and it first meant 'relating to fractions' before broadening to describe anything small or partial. The same frangere root quietly sits inside a whole family of English words, including 'fragment', 'fragile', 'fracture' and even 'refract', all of which carry the idea of something broken or bent. Knowing that the heart of the word is fract, the breaking, helps fix the spelling, since the tricky part is the unstressed -tional ending where the 't' is pronounced like 'sh'.

How the word is built

• fract (from Latin frangere: to break)
• -ion (noun-forming suffix)
• -al (adjective-forming suffix)