section
Definitions
General English
General Science
- noun a piece cut from a plant or animal for examination
Accounting
- noun one of the parts of an Act of Parliament
Aviation
- noun a component or part of a structure
- noun a diagram of a solid object as it would appear if cut, so that the internal structure is displayed.
Computing
- noun part of a main program which can be executed in its own right, without the rest of the main program being required
Construction
- A topographical measure of land area, equal to one mile square or 640 acres. One of the 36 divisions in a township.
- The most desired pieces of veneer, clipped to standard widths of 54" and 27", because of the ease of using them in assembling a panel. The actual width may vary from 48"54", or 24"27".
- A drawing of an object or construction member cut through to show the interior makeup.
- A segment of the project specifications that cover a work item.
Electronics
- A subdivision or cut portion of something. Also, the process or act of subdividing or cutting something.
- A plane surface formed by cutting through a solid. Also, the shape or area of such a section. For example, a conic section.
- A stage or other functional unit within a circuit, device, piece of equipment, or system. For instance, an amplifier stage.
- In radio communications, the transmission span between radio repeaters.
Food
- verb to divide an animal into cuts of meat during butchering
Information & Library Science
- noun part of a book which is made from one sheet of paper
- noun a supplement to a newspaper or magazine
Law
- verb to order somebody to be confined in a psychiatric hospital under the Mental Health Act
Media Studies
- noun a separate part of a paper on some topic such as money, culture etc., often included with weekend editions of newspapers
Medical
- noun the action of cutting tissue
- noun a cut made in tissue
- noun a slice of tissue cut for examination under a microscope
Military
- noun a sub-unit of a platoon
- noun a tactical infantry grouping of eight men (usually divided into two fireteams)
- noun a tactical armoured grouping of two tanks
Politics
- noun a part of an Act of Parliament or law
Publishing
- noun a printed sign showing a paragraph division or that a footnote is being referred to
- noun a department within a company
Origin & History of “section”
Section is one of a wide range of English words that go back to Latin secāre ‘cut’. Others include bisect (17th c.), dissect (17th c.), insect, intersect (17th c.), secateurs (19th c.), sector (16th c.), and segment (16th c.). It goes back ultimately to the Indo-European base *sek- ‘cut’, which also produced English saw, scythe, sedge, and sickle. The immediate source of section itself was the Latin derivative sectiō ‘cutting’.
