section

(sĕk'shən)
n.

1. One of several components; a piece.
2. A subdivision of a written work.
3. Law. A division of a statute or code.
4. A distinct portion of a newspaper: the sports section.
5. A distinct area of a town, county, or country: a residential section.
6. A land unit equal to one square mile (2.59 square kilometers), 640 acres, or ¹/₃₆ of a township.
7. The act or process of separating or cutting, especially the surgical cutting or dividing of tissue.
8. A thin slice, as of tissue, suitable for microscopic examination.
9. A segment of a fruit, especially a citrus fruit.
10. Representation of a solid object as it would appear if cut by an intersecting plane, so that the internal structure is displayed.
11. Music. A group of instruments or voices in the same class considered as a division of a band, orchestra, or choir: the rhythm section; the woodwind section.
12. A class or discussion group of students taking the same course: She taught three sections of English composition.
13. 1. A portion of railroad track maintained by a single crew.
    2. An area in a train's sleeping car containing an upper and lower berth.
14. An army tactical unit smaller than a platoon and larger than a squad.
15. A unit of vessels or aircraft within a division of armed forces.
16. One of two or more vehicles, such as a bus or train, given the same route and schedule, often used to carry extra passengers.
17. 1. The character (§) used in printing to mark the beginning of a section.
    2. This character used as the fourth in a series of reference marks for footnotes.

tr.v., -tioned, -tion·ing, -tions.

1. To separate or divide into parts.
2. To cut or divide (tissue) surgically.
3. To shade or crosshatch (part of a drawing) to indicate sections.

[Middle English seccioun, from Old French, from Latin sectiō, sectiōn-, from sectus, past participle of secāre, to cut.]

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area North America The standard module of division of the vast Western lands upon survey for settlement, usually 1 mile square and bounded by the cardinal directions N, E, S, and W (so not precisely 1 mile along north and south perimeters), and embedding 1-chain-wide allowances for several roads, varying the assignable area from the nominal 640 acres. Settlement was originally on the basis of a quarter-section per family, but soon proved markedly inadequate to support a family in less-favoured regions. Ontario and some other districts had bigger sections, often not cardinally oriented.

noun

1. One of the parts into which something is divided: division, member, part, piece, portion, segment, subdivision. See part/whole.
2. A part severed from a whole: cut, piece, portion, segment, slice. See part/whole.
3. A particular subdivision of a written work: part, passage, segment. See part/whole.
4. A thin piece, especially of tissue, suitable for microscopic examination: slice. See part/whole.

verb

To make a division into parts, sections, or branches: break up, dissever, divide, part, partition, segment, separate. See assemble/disassemble, part/whole.

n

Definition: division, portion
Antonyms: whole

n. 1. a specified military unit: a camouflage section was added to the army.

2. a subdivision of an army platoon.

3. a measure of land, equal to one square mile.

4. a particular district of a town.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Surface or portion obtained by a cut made through a structure or any part of a structure to reveal its profile, and/or interior. It may therefore show the outline of a moulding, and a drawing of an imaginary vertical cut through a building will show the elevations of the walls of internal rooms, the convention being that all beyond the plane made by the intersection of the section is depicted in elevation. A plan is therefore a section, the section-plane being horizontal, and shows the floors in elevation.

[Te]

The vertical side wall of an excavation trench, or standing vertical face cutting through selected deposits or features within an excavation trench, to allow the study and recording of stratigraphic sequences. Such faces are frequently drawn (section drawing) and photographed. Attempts have also been made to take casts or peels of standing sections for future reference.

This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

The distinct and numbered subdivisions in legal codes, statutes, and textbooks. In the law of real property, a parcel of land equal in area to one square mile, or 640 acres.

(DOD) 1. As applied to ships or naval aircraft, a tactical subdivision of a division. It is normally one-half of a division in the case of ships, and two aircraft in the case of aircraft. 2. A subdivision of an office, installation, territory, works, or organization; especially a major subdivision of a staff. 3. A tactical unit of the Army and Marine Corps. A section is smaller than a platoon and larger than a squad. In some organizations the section, rather than the squad, is the basic tactical unit. 4. An area in a warehouse extending from one wall to the next; usually the largest subdivision of one floor.

IN BRIEF: A portion, a part of a whole.

I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, Where's the self-help section? She said if she told me it would defeat the purpose. — Steven Wright, Canadian comedian.

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Preparation of sections from fixed and embedded blocks of tissue by thin shaving with a microtome.

For a list of words related to section, see:

• Procedures - section: act of surgical cutting
• Journalism - section: part of newspaper covering sports, news, features, advertisements, or finance
• Performance, Airplay, and the Recording Industry - section: group of horn or string players backing up band
• Building Construction and Design - section: vertical cross-section diagram of building
• Fixed Positions and Points - section: distinct part of something, esp. solid cut by plane
• Order, Hierarchy, and Systems - section: separate part or portion

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See words rhyming with "section."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Section.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - afdeling, del, snit, sektion, gruppe, stykke, strækning, grundstykke, profil, distrikt
v. tr. - dele i snit

Nederlands (Dutch)
gedeelte, sectie, rubriek, paragraaf, artikel, incisie, deel, baanvak

Français (French)
n. - partie, tronçon, élément, quartier, tranche, service, article, rubrique, passage, paragraphe, (Mil) groupe, (Biol, Géol) lamelle, (Méd) sectionnement, (Rail) canton, (US, Rail) compartiment couchettes, (US, Rail) train supplémentaire
v. tr. - sectionner, segmenter, (Méd) sectionner, (GB, Méd) décider l'internement de

Deutsch (German)
n. - Teil, Abschnitt, Abteilung, Sektion, Paragraph, Trakt, Schnitt
v. - teilen, unterteilen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - τμήμα, διαίρεση, κατάτμηση, (ΗΠΑ) εδαφική περιοχή, συνοικία πόλης, τομέας, (μαθημ., μηχαν.) διατομή, (τυπογρ.) απόσπασμα
v. - κόβω, τέμνω, (Βρετ.) εγκλείω σε ψυχιατρείο

Italiano (Italian)
sezione, articolo, tratto di ferrovia, tratta (ferr.), paragrafo, sezionare

idioms:

• Caesarian section    parto cesareo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - seção (f), fatia (f), parágrafo (m) (Jur.)
v. - secionar

Русский (Russian)
секция, деталь, часть (целого), отдел, статья (договора), параграф, комитет, сечение, вскрытие, купе, земельный участок, книжный блок, отсек, этап эстафеты, группа инструментов (в оркестре), делить на части, распределять или собирать по частям, представлять в разрезе

Español (Spanish)
n. - categoría, parte, sección, artículo, capa, estrato, sector, segmento, trayecto, párrafo, incisión
v. tr. - cortar o dividir en partes, hacer una incisión quirúrgica

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - avdelning, sektion, avsnitt, paragraf, grupp, snitt, genomskärning, kupé
v. - dela upp, indela i avdelningar, visa i genomskärning

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
切下的部分, 块, 片, 节, 部分, 款, 项, 分段, 切片

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 切下的部分, 塊, 片, 節, 部分, 款, 項
v. tr. - 分段, 切片

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 절단, 접합 부분, (사회적) 계급
v. tr. - 분할하다, (기계 등을) 해체하다, ~의 단면도를 만들다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 部分, 地区, 階層, 節, …欄, 部門, 部, 切開, 切片, 断面図, 区画, 切断
v. - 区分する

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) قسم, قطع (فعل) يقسم, يقطع‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קטע, חלק, איזור, פלח, פרק, חתך, חיתוך, כיתה, מחלקה‬
v. tr. - ‮חילק לקטעים‬

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