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Section vs Tract - What's the difference?

section | tract | Related terms |

Section is a related term of tract.


As nouns the difference between section and tract

is that section is a cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something while tract is an area or expanse.

As verbs the difference between section and tract

is that section is to cut, divide or separate into pieces while tract is (obsolete) to pursue, follow; to track.

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

    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;- ¶

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    tract

    English

    Etymology 1

    From tractus, the perfect passive participle of (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area or expanse.
  • an unexplored tract of sea
  • * Milton
  • the deep tract of hell
  • * Addison
  • a very high mountain joined to the mainland by a narrow tract of earth
  • A series of connected body organs, as in the digestive tract .
  • A small booklet such as a pamphlet, often for promotional or informational uses.
  • A brief treatise or discourse on a subject.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • The church clergy at that writ the best collection of tracts against popery that ever appeared.
  • A commentator's view or perspective on a subject.
  • Continued or protracted duration, length, extent
  • * Milton
  • improved by tract of time
  • * 1843 ,
  • Nay, in another case of litigation, the unjust Standard bearer, for his own profit, asserting that the cause belonged not to St. Edmund’s Court, but to his in , involved us in travellings and innumerable expenses, vexing the servants of St. Edmund for a long tract of time
  • Part of the proper of the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist for many Christian denominations, used instead of the alleluia during Lenten or pre-Lenten seasons, in a Requiem Mass, and on a few other penitential occasions.
  • (obsolete) Continuity or extension of anything.
  • the tract of speech
    (Older)
  • (obsolete) Traits; features; lineaments.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • The discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his countenance is a great weakness.
  • (obsolete) The footprint of a wild animal.
  • (Dryden)
  • (obsolete) Track; trace.
  • * Sir Thomas Browne
  • Efface all tract of its traduction.
  • * Shakespeare
  • But flies an eagle flight, bold, and forth on, / Leaving no tract behind.
  • (obsolete) Treatment; exposition.
  • (Shakespeare)

    Etymology 2

    From tractus , the participle stem of (etyl) trahere.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To pursue, follow; to track.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
  • Where may that treachour then (said he) be found, / Or by what meanes may I his footing tract ?
  • (obsolete) To draw out; to protract.
  • (Ben Jonson)
    English syncopic forms ----