Partition

How to spell partition

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce partition

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does partition mean?

1. nounA structure or barrier that divides a space, or the division of something into separate parts.
2. verbTo divide something into separate parts or sections.

Partition in a sentence

• noun

  A glass partition separated the meeting room from the open office.

• verb

  The developers plan to partition the large warehouse into small studios.

• noun

  The partition of the estate among the heirs took months to settle.

• verb

  Engineers will partition the hard drive before installing the software.

Where does partition come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb partiri, meaning 'to divide or share out', which was built on the noun pars (stem partis) meaning 'a part or portion'. From that verb came the noun partitio, in the accusative partitionem, describing the act of dividing something into parts. English took the word in the late 1300s and 1400s, partly through Anglo-Norman and Old French, where it referred both to the act of dividing and to a barrier that creates separate spaces. The same pars root sits inside a whole family of familiar relatives, including 'part', 'particle', 'portion', and 'apart', which is a useful reminder that the word begins with the plain 'part' you already know. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: writers hear the ending as 'tishun' and must remember it is the standard '-ition' spelling, not '-ission', because the root is part plus -ition.

How the word is built

• part (from Latin pars, partis: a part or share)
• -ition (suffix forming a noun of action or its result)