Word.ws English Dictionary

section

Syllables: sec·tionUK/ˈsɛkʃən/

section noun: a cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something. Also the ellipsis of Caesarean section.

Noun

section (plural sections)

  1. A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
    Synonyms:
    cutting, slice
  2. A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
    • 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...2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21
    1. A group of instruments in an orchestra.
      • The horn section is the group of symphonic musicians who play the French horn.
  3. A part of a document, especially a major part; often notated with §.
  4. An act or instance of cutting.
  5. A cross-section (image that shows an object as if cut along a plane).
    • Japan and China also produced Noah's arks, where Noah was known as Fohi. They were of wood and beautifully decorated, the animals being bright in color and usually flat in section and fixed to flat stands.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 59
    1. A cross-section perpendicular the longitudinal axis of an aircraft in flight.
    2. A function that generalizes the notion of the graph of a function; formally, a continuous right inverse to the projection map of a fiber bundle.
    3. (generalizing the topology sense) A right inverse of a morphism in some category
    4. (generalizing the topology sense in a different way, sheaf theory) An object which is defined by analogy with sections of fiber bundles but in a more general setting (that of sheaves). Formally, an element of the image of an open set under the action of a (pre-)sheaf.
  6. An incision or the act of making an incision.
  7. thin section, a thin slice of material prepared as a specimen for research.
  8. A taxonomic rank below the genus (and subgenus if present), but above the species.
  9. An informal taxonomic rank below the order ranks and above the family ranks.
  10. A group of 10-15 soldiers led by a non-commissioned officer and forming part of a platoon.
  11. (New Zealand) A piece of residential land; a plot.
  12. (Canada, US, law and land surveying) Synonym of square mile, a unit of land area, especially in the contexts of Canadian surveys and American land grants and legal property descriptions.
    Synonyms:
    square mile
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. The symbol §, denoting a section of a document.
  2. A sequence of rock layers.
  3. Archeological section; vertical plane and cross-section of the ground to view its profile and stratigraphy; part of an archeological sequence.
  4. Angle section, L-section, angle iron, steel angle, slotted angle.
  5. (Philippines) A class in a school; a group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher in a certain school year or semester or school quarter year.

Verb

section (third-person singular simple present sections, present participle sectioning, simple past and past participle sectioned)

  1. (transitive) To cut, divide or separate into pieces.
    • Overlap spans and neutral sections have been provided at intervals along the line, which is thus sectioned electrically, not only at the feeder station and track sectioning cabins, but also by switches at certain overlap spans.1959 June, “Clacton and Walton Electrification”, in Railway Magazine, page 379
  2. (transitive) To reduce to the degree of thinness required for study with the microscope.
  3. (Australia, New Zealand, UK, transitive) To commit (a person) to a hospital for mental health treatment as an involuntary patient. So called after various sections of legal acts regarding mental health.
    • 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.1998, Diana Gittins, Madness in its Place: Narratives of Severalls Hospital, 1913-1997, Routledge, →ISBN, page 45
    • The doctor then sectioned her, making her an involuntary patient, and had her moved to a secure ward.a. 2000, Lucy Johnstone, Users and Abusers of Psychiatry: A Critical Look at Psychiatric Practice, Second edition, Routledge, published 2000, →ISBN, page xiv
    Synonyms:
    schedule
  4. (transitive) To perform a cesarean section on (someone).
    • "But if she's gone into active labour she could be bleeding massively and you may have to section her there and then."2012, Anne Fraser, St. Piran's: Daredevil, Doctor...Dad!, Harlequin, page 16
    • You may hear a physician say, "I don't want to section her until the baby declares itself."2008, Murray et al, Labor and Delivery Nursing: Guide to Evidence-Based Practice, Springer Publishing Company, page 57

Also used as

section is also the ellipsis of Caesarean section.

section meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu

section in Hindi

part, piece or subdivision of anything
अनुभाग anubhāg, भाग bhāg, खंड khaṇḍ, अंश añś, प्रभाग prabhāg
cutting, part cut out
भाग bhāg, खंड khaṇḍ, प्रभाग prabhāg
part of a document
भाग bhāg, अनुभाग anubhāg

section in Urdu

سیکشن

section in Bengali

সেকশন

section in Telugu

విభాగము
More languagesFewer languages
section in Malayalam
വിഭാഗം vibhāgaṁ, ഭാഗം bhāgaṁ, കഷണം kaṣaṇaṁ
section in Kannada
ವಿಭಾಗ
section in Punjabi
ਸੈਕਸ਼ਨ, ਭਾਗ
section in Nepali
खण्ड, अनुभाग
section in Tagalog
tapyas, pangkat
section in Arabic
جُزْء juzʔ, قِسْم qism, مَقْطَع maqṭaʕ
section in Malay
seksi, seksyen
section in Indonesian
seksi
section in Persian
بخش baxš
section in Thai
ส่วน sùuan
section in Vietnamese
phần, bộ phận

Examples of section in a sentence

  • A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.2013 June 28, Joris Luyendijk, “Our banks are out of control”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 3, page 21:
  • 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;- […]2006, Mairi Colme, A Divine Dance of Madness, Chipmunkapublishing, →ISBN, page 5:

All 40 example sentences with section

Synonyms of section

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of section

Forms of section

Noun
pluralsections
Verb
third-person singular presentsections
present participlesectioning
past participlesectioned
pastsectioned

Past tense of section: sectioned

Plural of section: sections

Origin of section

From Middle English seccioun, from Old French section, from Latin sectiō (“cutting, cutting off, excision, amputation of diseased parts of the body, etc.”), from sectus, past participle of secāre (“to cut”). More at saw.

Words formed from section

Phrases with section

18 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with section

44 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about section

What does section mean?
Section means a cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
What is section in Hindi?
Section in Hindi is अनुभाग (anubhāg), भाग (bhāg), खंड (khaṇḍ). See Section meaning in Hindi.
How do you use section in a sentence?
A broad section of the political class now recognises the need for change but remains unable to see the necessity of a fundamental overhaul.
What part of speech is section?
Section can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce section?
Section is pronounced /ˈsɛkʃən/ (UK).
What is the plural of section?
The plural of section is sections.

Words near section in the dictionary

  1. sectile
  2. sectility
  3. secting
  4. sectio
  5. sectio divina
  6. section
  7. section 104 holding
  8. section 104 holdings
  9. Section 226
  10. Section 226s
  11. Section 620

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: section (page history and authors); section (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); section (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); section (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); section (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); section (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); section (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-section.ogg.

Cite this entry: “section.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/section. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.