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Portion vs Section - What's the difference?

portion | section |

As nouns the difference between portion and section

is that portion is an allocated amount while section is a cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.

As verbs the difference between portion and section

is that portion is to divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes while section is to cut, divide or separate into pieces.

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

    External links

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    section

    English

    (wikipedia section)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
  • A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-28, author=(Joris Luyendijk)
    • , volume=189, issue=3, page=21, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Our banks are out of control , passage=Seeing the British establishment struggle with the financial sector is like watching an alcoholic […].  Until 2008 there was denial over what finance had become. […]  But the scandals kept coming, and so we entered stage three – what therapists call "bargaining". A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul. Instead it offers fixes and patches.}}
  • A part of a document.
  • 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.
  • (surgery) An incision or the act of making an incision.
  • (sciences) A thin slice of material prepared as a specimen for research.
  • (senseid) A taxonomic rank below the genus (and subgenus if present), but above the species.
  • An informal taxonomic rank below the order ranks and above the family ranks.
  • (military) A group of 10-15 soldiers lead by a non-commissioned officer and forming part of a platoon.
  • (category theory) A right inverse.
  • (NZ) A piece of residential land usually a quarter of an acre in size; a plot.
  • (label) A one-mile square area of land, defined by a government survey.

    • Synonyms

    * (sense) sectio * cutting, slice, snippet * division, part, slice, piece * volume

    Antonyms

    * whole

    Coordinate terms

    * (aviation) waterline, buttock line

    Derived terms

    * cross section * dissection * bisection * quarter section * section road * section grid

    Related terms

    * dissect * secant * sect * sectarian * sector * segment * bisect * insect * intersect * prosect * resect * trisect

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cut, divide or separate into pieces.
  • (British) To commit (a person, to a hospital, with or without their consent), as for mental health reasons.
  • * 1998 , Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997 , Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-18388-8, page 45:
    • Tribunals were set up as watchdogs in cases of compulsory detention (sectioning'). Informal patients, however, could be ' sectioned , and this was often a fear of patients once they were in hospital.
  • * Lucy Johnstone, Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: A Critical Look at Psychiatric Practice , Second Edition, Routledge (2000), ISBN 978-0-415-21155-0, page xiv:
    • The doctor then sectioned her, making her an involuntary patient, and had her moved to a secure ward.
  • * 2006 , Mairi Colme, A Divine Dance of Madness , Chipmunkapublishing, ISBN 978-1-84747-023-2, page 5:
    • After explaining that for 7 years, from ’88 to ’95, I was permanently sectioned under the Mental Health act, robbed of my freedom, my integrity, my rights, I wrote at the time;- ¶

    External links

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    Anagrams

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