partial

From Middle English partiall, parcial, from Old French parcial (“biased or particular”), from Late Latin partiālis (“of or pertaining to a part”), from Latin pars (“part”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑɹʃəl/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑːʃəl/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)ʃəl
• Hyphenation: par‧tial

partial (comparative more partial, superlative most partial)

1. existing as a part or portion; incomplete

   So far, I have only pieced together a partial account of the incident.

2. (computer science) describing a property that holds only when an algorithm terminates

   It's easy to prove partial correctness, but it's not obvious that it is also totally correct.

3. biased in favor of a person, side, or point of view, especially when dealing with a competition or dispute

   Synonym: nonimpartial

   Antonym: impartial

   The referee is blatantly partial!

   God is not partial; he does not play favorites.

   • 17th century, Alexander Pope, a letter

     partial parent

4. (followed by the preposition to) having a predilection for something
   • 1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Archibald Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     not partial to an ostentatious display

   • 1817, Jane Austen, chapter 6, in Pride and Prejudice, page 32:

     But if a woman is partial to a man, and does not endeavour to conceal it, he must find it out.

   Synonym: fond of

5. (mathematics) of or relating to a partial derivative or partial differential
6. (botany) subordinate

• (part): partite, fractional, demi-, semi-

partial (plural partials)

1. (mathematics) A partial derivative: a derivative with respect to one independent variable of a function in multiple variables while holding the other variables constant.
2. (music) Any of the sine waves which make up a complex tone; often an overtone or harmonic of the fundamental.
3. (dentistry) dentures that replace only some of the natural teeth
4. (forensics) An incomplete fingerprint
5. (programming, Internet) A fragment of a template containing markup.
   • 2009, Antonio Cangiano, Ruby on Rails for Microsoft Developers, page 356:

     In fact, as seen in Chapters 5 and 6, the resulting document is usually the product of rendering a layout, which yields the rendering of the template at hand, which in turn can invoke the rendering of other templates and/or one or more partials.

6. (bodybuilding) The condition of not exhausting the amplitude during the repetition of an exercise.

   Synonym: half rep

   • 2021, Edward L. Wallace, Omniflex: A Unified System of Strength Training:

     Research tells us that eccentrics, heavy partials, and static exercise may require several days or weeks of recovery time.

7. (furry fandom) A fursuit that does not fully cover the wearer's body.

partial (third-person singular simple present partials, present participle partialing or partialling, simple past and past participle partialed or partialled)

1. (statistics, transitive) To take the partial regression coefficient.

• “partial”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “partial”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “partial”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• patrial

From Middle French partial, borrowed from Late Latin partiālis (“relating to a part”), from Latin pars (“part”). Doublet of partiel.

• IPA^(key): /paʁ.sjal/

partial (feminine partiale, masculine plural partiaux, feminine plural partiales)

1. partial, biased

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