# fraction
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraccion, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus, past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (English break). Doublet of frazione.

### Pronunciation

* enPR: frăkʹshən, IPA: /ˈfɹæk.ʃən/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Hyphenation: frac‧tion
* Rhymes: -ækʃən

### Noun

fraction (plural fractions)
* A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
** 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii: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 […]
* (arithmetic) A ratio of two numbers (numerator and denominator), usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar called the vinculum or, alternatively, in sequence on the same line and separated by a solidus (diagonal bar).
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fraction
* (chemistry) A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
* (Christianity) In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
** a. 1668 (date written), Jeremy Taylor, “The History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: Discourse XIX.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume III, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 290:[…] The bread, when it is consecrated and made sacramental, is the body of our Lord; and the fraction and distribution of it is the communication of that body, which died for us upon the cross.
* A small amount.
** 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […] , and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town.
** 2011 January 29, Chris Bevan, “Torquay 0-1 Crawley Town”, in BBC:After kick-off was delayed because of crowd congestion, Torquay went closest to scoring in a cagey opening 30 minutes, when Danny Stevens saw a fierce shot from the edge of the area swerve a fraction wide.
* (archaic) The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
** 1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, Actes and Monuments of These Latter and Perillous Dayes, […], London: […] Iohn Day, […], →OCLC:Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking.

#### Usage notes

* Can be used with either countable or uncountable nouns; however, the word fraction takes the number of the noun it is paired with.
** If used with a plural countable noun, it needs to take a plural verb.
** If used with a singular countable noun or an uncountable noun, it needs to take a singular verb.

#### Derived terms

* abfraction
* biofraction
* case fraction
* common fraction
* complex fraction
* continued fraction
* continued-fraction
* decimal fraction
* dyadic fraction
* Egyptian fraction
* ejection fraction
* Euler's continued fraction formula
* field of fractions
* finite continued fraction
* fractile
* fractionable
* fractional
* fractional calculus
* fractional distillation
* fractional ideal
* fractionalism
* fractionalist
* fractionality
* fractionalization
* fractionalize
* fractionalizing
* fractionally
* fractional reserve banking
* fractionary
* fractionate
* fractionation
* fractionator
* fraction bar
* fractionise
* fractionization
* fractionize
* fractionner
* fraction slash
* general continued fraction
* generalized continued fraction
* glycofraction
* hypofraction
* improper fraction
* infinite continued fraction
* interfraction
* intrafraction
* mass fraction
* microfraction
* mixed fraction
* mole fraction
* oligofraction
* ordinal fraction
* partial fraction
* partial fraction decomposition
* partial fraction expansion
* periodic continued fraction
* proper fraction
* regular continued fraction
* representative fraction
* simple continued fraction
* simple fraction
* subfraction
* top-heavy fraction
* total ring of fractions
* unit fraction
* vanishing fraction
* vulgar fraction

#### Related terms

* fractal
* fractious
* fracture
* fragile
* fragileness
* fragility
* fragment
* frail
* frailness
* frailty
* frangibility
* frangible
* frangibleness
* infract
* infraction
* infrangibility
* infrangible
* infrangibleness
* infringe
* infringeable
* infringee
* infringement
* infringer
* infringest
* noninfringement
* refract
* refraction
* refractive
* refractory
* refrangible
* refringent

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Verb

fraction (third-person singular simple present fractions, present participle fractioning, simple past and past participle fractioned)
* (transitive) To divide or break into fractions.
* (transitive) To fractionate.

#### Translations
### References

* “fraction”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* “fraction”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
* "fraction" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “fraction”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* Croftian, factor in, infocrat

## French
### Etymology

Inherited from Old French fraction, borrowed from Latin fractiōnem.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /fʁak.sjɔ̃/
* Audio:(file)

### Noun

fraction f (plural fractions)
* fraction (small amount)
    Je me suis endormi pendant une fraction de secondes. ― I fell asleep for a fraction of a second.
* (mathematics) fraction
    En divisant deux par trois, on obtient une fraction irréductible. ― When dividing two by three, you get an irreducible fraction.
* fraction, breakup

#### Derived terms

* barre de fraction
* fractionnaire
* fractionner

#### Related terms

* fracture

#### Descendants

* → Romanian: fracțiune
* → Turkish: fraksiyon
* → Persian: فراکسیون (ferâksyon)

### Further reading

* “fraction”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

### Anagrams

* fronçait