section

noun

A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.

A part, piece, subdivision of anything.

(music) A group of instruments in an orchestra.

A part of a document, especially a major part; often notated with §.

An act or instance of cutting.

A cross-section (image that shows an object as if cut along a plane).

(aviation) A cross-section perpendicular the longitudinal axis of an aircraft in flight.

(topology) A function that generalizes the notion of the graph of a function; formally, a continuous right inverse to the projection map of a fiber bundle.

(generalizing the topology sense, algebra, category theory) A right inverse of a morphism in some category

(generalizing the topology sense in a different way, sheaf theory) An object which is defined by analogy with sections of fiber bundles but in a more general setting (that of sheaves). Formally, an element of the image of an open set under the action of a (pre-)sheaf.

(surgery) An incision or the act of making an incision.

(sciences) thin section, a thin slice of material prepared as a specimen for research.

(botany) A taxonomic rank below the genus (and subgenus if present), but above the species.

(zoology) An informal taxonomic rank below the order ranks and above the family ranks.

(military) A group of 10-15 soldiers led by a non-commissioned officer and forming part of a platoon.

(New Zealand) A piece of residential land; a plot.

(US, Canada, law and land surveying) Synonym of square mile, a unit of land area, especially in the contexts of Canadian surveys and American land grants and legal property descriptions.

The symbol §, denoting a section of a document.

(geology) A sequence of rock layers.

(archaeology) Archeological section; vertical plane and cross-section of the ground to view its profile and stratigraphy; part of an archeological sequence.

(technology) Angle section, L-section, angle iron, steel angle, slotted angle.

(Philippines, education) A class in a school; a group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher in a certain school year or semester or school quarter year.

(surgery, colloquial) Ellipsis of Caesarean section. [Delivery of a baby through an incision in the womb.]

verb

To cut, divide or separate into pieces.

To reduce to the degree of thinness required for study with the microscope.

(UK, Australia, New Zealand) To commit (a person) to a hospital for mental health treatment as an involuntary patient. So called after various sections of legal acts regarding mental health.

(medicine) To perform a cesarean section on (someone).

Roots

secosect- · Latin · cut

Synonyms for section

subdivisionn segmentn divisionn paragraphn partn chaptern departmentn articlen portionn clausen pagen rubricn

Synonyms & related words for section

Find synonyms, related words, and the definition of section — including subdivision, segment, division, paragraph, part, chapter. Dendril is a free visual thesaurus that shows them on an interactive map where stronger matches sit closer to the center — no signup, no ads.

Words related to section

Explore words related to section — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include subsection, sectionally, subpart, xylotomy, subchapter, subparagraph, sectionalize, segmentalization. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Synonyms for section

Common synonyms for section include subdivision, segment, division, paragraph, part, chapter, department, article — words that share a close meaning. Hover or tap any word on the map for its definition and part of speech.

Where does section come from?

The word section breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root sect-, from Latin seco (“cut”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.