Segment

How to spell segment

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce segment

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does segment mean?

1. nounA part into which something is or can be divided.
2. verbTo divide something into separate parts or sections.

Segment in a sentence

• noun

  The marketing team studied the wealthiest segment of the customer base.

• verb

  The analysts decided to segment the market by age and income.

• noun

  She peeled the orange and shared a segment with her colleague.

• verb

  Software can segment a large file into smaller blocks for transfer.

Where does segment come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes directly from the Latin segmentum, which meant 'a piece cut off' or 'a strip'. That noun was formed from the verb secare, meaning 'to cut', the same root that gives English 'section', 'sector', 'dissect' and even 'insect' (an insect being a creature whose body looks 'cut into' parts). When segmentum first appeared in English in the early 1600s it was a fairly technical term, especially in geometry, for a part of a circle cut off by a line. From there it spread to mean any of the parts into which something naturally divides, such as a slice of an orange or a stage of a journey. The spelling is mercifully regular, with the helpful clue that the middle holds the same 'seg' you can hear in 'sector', both born from the idea of cutting.

How the word is built

• seg- (from secare: to cut)
• -ment (noun suffix denoting a result or thing)