fraction

From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraction, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus (English fracture), past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (English break).

• enPR: frăkʹshən, IPA^(key): /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Hyphenation: frac‧tion
• Rhymes: -ækʃən

fraction (plural fractions)

1. A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:

     With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]

2. (arithmetic) A ratio of two numbers (numerator and denominator), usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar called the vinculum or, alternatively, in sequence on the same line and separated by a solidus (diagonal bar).

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fraction

3. (chemistry) A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
4. (Christianity) In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
   • a. 1668 (date written), Jeremy Taylor, “The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: Discourse XIX.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume III, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 290:

     […] The bread, when it is consecrated and made sacramental, is the body of our Lord; and the fraction and distribution of it is the communication of that body, which died for us upon the cross.

5. A small amount.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […] , and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.

   • 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0-1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:

     After kick-off was delayed because of crowd congestion, Torquay went closest to scoring in a cagey opening 30 minutes, when Danny Stevens saw a fierce shot from the edge of the area swerve a fraction wide.

6. (archaic) The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
   • 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:

     Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking.

• Can be used with either countable or uncountable nouns; however, the word fraction takes the number of the noun it is paired with.
  • If used with a plural countable noun, it needs to take a plural verb.
  • If used with a singular countable noun or an uncountable noun, it needs to take a singular verb.

fraction (third-person singular simple present fractions, present participle fractioning, simple past and past participle fractioned)

1. To divide or break into fractions.

• “fraction”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “fraction”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
• "fraction" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
• “fraction”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• Croftian, factor in, infocrat

Inherited from Old French fraction, borrowed from Latin fractiōnem.

• IPA^(key): /fʁak.sjɔ̃/

• Audio

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fraction f (plural fractions)

1. fraction (small amount)

   Je me suis endormi pendant une fraction de secondes. ― I fell asleep for a fraction of a second.

2. (mathematics) fraction

   En divisant deux par trois, on obtient une fraction irréductible. ― When dividing two by three, you get an irreducible fraction.

3. fraction, breakup

• barre de fraction
• fractionnaire
• fractionner

• fracture

• → Romanian: fracțiune
• → Turkish: fraksiyon

• “fraction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• fronçait