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Portion vs Packet - What's the difference?

portion | packet |

As nouns the difference between portion and packet

is that portion is portion while packet is a small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel; as, a packet of letters, a packet of crisps, a packet of biscuits.

As a verb packet is

to make up into a packet or bundle.

portion

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • An allocated amount.
  • That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything.
  • One's fate; lot.
  • * Bible, Luke xii. 46
  • The lord of that servant will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
  • * Keble
  • Man's portion is to die and rise again.
  • The part of an estate given or falling to a child or heir; an inheritance.
  • * Bible, Luke xv. 12
  • Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
  • A wife's fortune; a dowry.
  • * 1613 , , V. iv. 31:
  • Commend me to her, and to piece her portion / Tender her this.

    Usage notes

    Relatively formal, compared to the more informal part or more concrete and casual piece. For example, “part of the money” (both informal) but “portion of the proceeds” (both formal).

    Synonyms

    * part * piece

    Derived terms

    * portionless * proportion

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes.
  • To endow with a portion or inheritance.
  • Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest. — Alexander Pope.

    Usage notes

    * Particularly used as portion out. * Relatively formal, compared to the more informal divide, divide up, or the casual divvy, divvy up.

    Synonyms

    * divide, divide up * divvy, divvy up

    Derived terms

    * portion off * portion out

    packet

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pacquet (obsolete)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small pack or package; a little bundle or parcel; as, a packet of letters, a packet of crisps, a packet of biscuits.
  • (lb) Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed days of sailing; a mail boat. Packet boat, ship, vessel ().
  • *
  • *:With just the turn of a shoulder she indicated the water front, where, at the end of the dock on which they stood, lay the good ship, Mount Vernon , river packet , the black smoke already pouring from her stacks.
  • (lb) A specimen envelope containing small, dried plants or containing parts of plants when attached to a larger sheet.
  • *
  • *: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.
  • (lb) A small fragment of data as transmitted on some types of network, notably Ethernet networks ().
  • (lb) A plastic bag.
  • *2012' August 6, Wendy Knowler], ''[http://www.iol.co.za/blogs/wendy-knowler-s-consumer-watch-1.1608/plastic-packets-who-bags-the-profits-1.1356896 Plastic ' packets : who bags the profits?
  • Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make up into a packet or bundle.
  • To send in a packet or dispatch vessel.
  • * Ford
  • Her husband was packeted to France.
  • To ply with a packet or dispatch boat.
  • To subject to a denial-of-service attack in which a large number of data packets are sent.
  • * 2007 , Committee on Improving Cybersecurity Research in the United States, ?Toward a Safer and More Secure Cyberspace
  • Typically, one hacker will annoy another; the offended party replies by launching a denial-of-service attack against the offender. These attacks—known as packeting —tend to be of limited duration

    See also

    * datagram * packetlike * packet radio * packet switching, packet-switching

    References

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