fragment

Noun

fragment (plural fragments)

1. A part broken off; a small, detached portion; an imperfect part, either physically or not.
   • a fragment of an ancient writing
   • I heard a small fragment of the conversation.

   Synonyms:

   chip, lump, bit, chunk, tranche, clip, crumb, crumbling, cutting, flake

2. A sentence not containing a subject or a predicate; a sentence fragment.
3. An incomplete portion of code.
4. (Internet) A portion of a URL referring to a subordinate resource or anchor (such as a specific point on a web page), introduced by the # sign.
   • The URL www.example.com/home#recent ends with a fragment.
   • Unique URLs requires you to make like an information architect and do some URL design work. Possibly, you'll be controlling only the fragment identifier rather than the entire URL, but even the fragment identifier has usability implications.2006, Michael Mahemoff, Ajax Design Patterns, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 523
5. A split piece of an organism that has undergone the asexual reproduction process where the organism splits into one or more pieces, then those pieces become new individuals.

Verb

IPA/fɹæɡˈmɛnt/

fragment (third-person singular simple present fragments, present participle fragmenting, simple past and past participle fragmented)

1. (intransitive) To break apart.
   • Once the centralized power of Rome fragmented, economic, social and political power simplified and relocalized.2023 July 31, Charles Hugh Smith, Lessons from the Unraveling of the Roman Empire: Simplification, Localization
   • An investigation found that the rail had fragmented as trains passed over it, and that the likely cause was "rolling contact fatigue" defined as multiple surface-breaking cracks. Repeated high loading had caused fatigue cracks to grow, resulting in what is called gauge corner cracking.2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Tackling broken rails: the skills and technology improving safety”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 30
2. (transitive) To cause to be broken into pieces.
   • Samois includes celebate ^([sic]), heterosexual and bisexual women as well as lesbians, and I feel very strongly that this is the wisest choice. Our community is so fragile that we can't afford to fragment it by excommunicating non-lesbian women.1982 December 18, Pat Califa, “Open Policy”, in Gay Community News, volume 10, number 22, page 5
3. (transitive) To break up and disperse (a file) into non-contiguous areas of a disk.
4. (intransitive) Of an organism: to undergo the asexual reproduction process where an organism spilts into one or more pieces, then those pieces become new individuals.