Part

How to spell part

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce part

What does part mean?

1. nounA piece, section, or portion of a larger whole.
2. verbTo separate or move apart from one another.
3. nounA character or role performed by an actor in a play or film.

Part in a sentence

• noun

  The engine needs a new part before it will run.

• verb

  The crowd began to part to let the ambulance through.

• noun

  She landed the leading part in the school production.

• noun

  Only the first part of the report was finished on time.

• verb

  The old friends were reluctant to part at the station.

• noun

  He rehearsed his part every evening for a month.

Where does part come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin pars, with the stem part-, meaning a piece, share, or portion of a larger whole. Latin used it widely for everything from a body part to a share of property, and it passed into Old French as 'part' before entering English in the early medieval period. Old English actually absorbed the Latin form directly as well, which is why the word feels so deeply native today. The same root branches out into a huge family of familiar relatives, including 'partner', 'particle', 'partial', 'depart', and 'apart', all of which carry the idea of something divided or shared out. Because the spelling is short and phonetic, with no silent letters or doubled consonants, it has stayed remarkably stable and gives modern writers almost no trouble.

How the word is built

• part (from Latin pars, partis: a piece or portion)