Sectional

How to spell sectional

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce sectional

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sectional mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to a particular section, part, or region of a larger whole, or composed of separate sections.
2. nounA large sofa made up of separate pieces that fit together in various arrangements.

Sectional in a sentence

• adjective

  The bookcase arrived as a sectional unit that we bolted together at home.

• noun

  They bought a deep grey sectional that wrapped around the living room.

• adjective

  The report broke spending down into sectional totals for each department.

• noun

  The sectional in the den seats the whole family on movie nights.

Where does sectional come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'section', which descends from the Latin sectio, meaning 'a cutting' or 'a slicing', itself formed from the verb secare, 'to cut'. The same secare root branches into a surprising family of everyday English words, including 'segment', 'dissect', 'insect' (literally something 'cut into' segments), and even 'scissors'. English added the adjective suffix -al to 'section' in the early 1800s to describe anything relating to a part, division, or region of a larger whole. Over time the adjective also gathered a political flavour, describing loyalty to one region rather than the nation, a sense made famous in nineteenth-century America. In the twentieth century the word turned into a noun as well, naming a sofa assembled from separate cut pieces, which neatly mirrors the original Latin idea of something divided into parts. The spelling stays regular once you remember it is simply 'section' plus '-al', so the troublesome part is the unstressed middle, which sounds like a vague schwa.

How the word is built

• sect (from Latin secare: to cut)
• -ion (noun-forming)
• -al (adjective/noun suffix)