English
part
Etymology

The noun is from Middle English part, from Old English part and Old French part; both from Latin partem, accusative of pars ("piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson, part, member"), from Proto-Indo-European *par-, *per- ("to sell, exchange").

Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /pɑːt/
  • (America) enPR: pärt, IPA: /pɑɹt/
  • (Australia, New Zealand) IPA: /pɐːt/
Noun

part (plural parts)

  1. A portion; a component.
    1. A fraction of a whole.
      Gaul is divided into three parts.
      • 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:
        Hepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
    2. A distinct element of something larger.
      The parts of a chainsaw include the chain, engine, and handle.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
        It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake.
    3. A group inside a larger group.
    4. Share, especially of a profit.
      I want my part of the bounty.
    5. A unit of relative proportion in a mixture.
      The mixture comprises one part sodium hydroxide and ten parts water.
    6. 3.5 centiliters of one ingredient in a mixed drink.
    7. A section of a document.
      Please turn to Part I, Chapter 2.
    8. A section of land; an area of a country or other territory; region.
      • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
        […] the Faery knight / Besought that Damzell suffer him depart, / And yield him readie passage to that other part.
    9. (math, dated) A factor.
      3 is a part of 12.
    10. (US) A room in a public building, especially a courtroom.
  2. Duty; responsibility.
    to do one’s part
    1. Position or role (especially in a play).
      We all have a part to play.
      • 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 ↗:
        We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
      • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
        He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
    2. (music) The melody played or sung by a particular instrument, voice, or group of instruments or voices, within a polyphonic piece.
      The first violin part in this concerto is very challenging.
    3. Each of two contrasting sides of an argument, debate etc.; "hand".
      • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 15, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC ↗, page 356 ↗:
        Meaning to to gaine thereby, that the fruition of life, cannot perfectly be pleaſing vnto vs, if we ſtand in any feare to looſe it. A man might nevertheleſſe ſay on the contrarie part, that we embrace and claſp this good ſo much the harder, and with more affection, as we perceive it to be leſſe ſure, and feare it ſhould be taken from vs.
      • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Mark 9:40 ↗:
        He that is not against us is on our part.
      • 1650, Edmund Waller, to my Lady Morton (epistle)
        Make whole kingdoms take her brother's part.
  3. (US) The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions.
    The part of his hair was slightly to the left.
  4. (Judaism) In the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, a unit of time equivalent to 3⅓ seconds.
  5. A constituent of character or capacity; quality; faculty; talent; usually in the plural with a collective sense.
    • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene ii]:
      which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them.
    • 1790 November, Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, and on the Proceedings in Certain Societies in London Relative to that Event. […], London: […] J[ames] Dodsley, […], →OCLC ↗:
      men of considerable parts
    • 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC ↗:
      great quickness of parts
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations
  • Spanish: pago (usually in plural)
Translations Translations Verb

part (parts, present participle parting; simple past and past participle parted)

  1. (intransitive) To leave the company of.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene vii]:
      He wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.
    • 1879, Anthony Trollope, John Caldigate:
      It was strange to him that a father should feel no tenderness at parting with an only son.
    • 1860, George Eliot, Recollections of Italy:
      his precious bag, which he would by no means part from
  2. To cut hair with a parting.
  3. (transitive) To divide in two.
    to part the curtains
    • 1884 December 9, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter VII, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer's Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC ↗:
      I run the canoe into a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe from the outside.
  4. (intransitive) To be divided in two or separated.
    A rope parts.  His hair parts in the middle.
  5. (transitive, now, rare) To divide up; to share.
    • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC ↗, Luke:
      He that hath ij. cootes, lett hym parte with hym that hath none: And he that hath meate, let him do lyke wyse.
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      He left three sonnes, his famous progeny, / Borne of faire Inogene of Italy; / Mongst whom he parted his imperiall state […]
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, John 19:24 ↗:
      They parted my raiment among them.
    • c. 1699 – 1703, Alexander Pope, “The First Book of Statius His Thebais”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], published 1717, →OCLC ↗:
      to part his throne, and share his heaven with thee
    • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter number or name)”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC ↗:
      Her friend parted his breakfast — a scanty mess of coffee and some coarse bread — with the child and her grandfather, and inquired whither they were going.
  6. (obsolete) To have a part or share; to partake.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, 1 Samuel 30:24 ↗:
      They shall part alike.
  7. To separate or disunite; to remove from contact or contiguity; to sunder.
    • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act II, scene viii]:
      The narrow seas that part / The French and English.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Luke 24:51 ↗:
      While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC ↗:
      "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."
  8. (obsolete) To hold apart; to stand or intervene between.
    • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene v]:
      The stumbling night did part our weary powers.
  9. To separate by a process of extraction, elimination, or secretion.
    to part gold from silver
    • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC ↗:
      The liver minds his own affair, […] / And parts and strains the vital juices.
  10. (transitive, archaic) To leave; to quit.
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene i]:
      since presently your souls must part your bodies
  11. (transitive, internet) To leave (an IRC channel).
Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

part (not comparable)

  1. Fractional; partial.
    Fred was part owner of the car.
Adverb

part (not comparable)

  1. Partly; partially; fractionally.
    Part finished
  2. (with reference to a person's ethnicity) to a partial degree.
    My Native American friend is also part German and part French.


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