Division

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /dɪˈvɪʒn̩/

Definitions

1. The process or action of separating something into parts or groups ; a calculation that splits a number into equal parts by finding how many times one number fits into another
2. Separating into sections or parts, especially for organization or analysis ; an arithmetic operation to determine the quotient by dividing one quantity by another
3. The act of splitting or distributing something into portions or categories ; a basic math operation involving sharing a number equally or finding the ratio between numbers

Etymology: Latin "dīvidere" meant "to divide," and its perfect passive participle "dīvīsus" gave rise to the noun "dīvīsiō," which named the act of dividing itself. That noun passed into Old French as "division" and then into Middle English as "divisioun," and English eventually settled on the spelling we use now. The word is therefore a process noun: it names the action rather than the result or the thing divided. Its close relative "divisio" also reached English directly from Latin, so the two forms are doublets, two versions of the same word that came in by different routes. The French-filtered form "division" is the one that took hold in everyday use, while the Latin-borrowed form kept a more technical, scholarly flavour.

Synonyms: separation, partition, split, dissection, segmentation

Antonyms: union, integration, combination, merger, consolidation