Subdivision

How to spell subdivision

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce subdivision

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does subdivision mean?

1. nounA part or section formed by dividing something that is already a division of a larger whole.
2. nounA tract of land divided into individual building lots, often a planned residential area.

Subdivision in a sentence

• The biology department is organised into a further subdivision for marine research.

• They bought a house in a quiet subdivision on the edge of town.

• Each chapter has a subdivision that lists the key formulas.

• The developer filed plans for a new subdivision with forty homes.

Where does subdivision come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built from the Latin prefix sub-, meaning 'under' or 'beneath', and divisio, the noun formed from the verb dividere, which literally meant 'to force apart' or 'to separate into pieces'. The verb itself joins dis-, 'apart', with a root related to dividing and distributing, so the original image is of something pushed into separate shares. English already had 'division' by the late 1300s, taken through Old French from that Latin source, and 'subdivision' followed as a natural compound meaning a further division within a division. Over time it gained a very concrete use in property and town planning, where a large parcel of land is split into smaller building lots. The spelling stays reassuringly regular because each part keeps its own shape: sub plus division, with no doubled letters to trip over.

How the word is built

• sub- (under, secondary)
• divis (from Latin dividere: to divide, separate)
• -ion (noun suffix denoting an action or result)