# division

Pronunciation: say "di-VIZH-uhn" /dɪˈvɪʒən/

## Noun

1. The act or process of separating something into distinct parts.
   - Simple: The act of splitting something into smaller parts.
   - _The division of the estate among the heirs caused years of dispute._
   - _Cell division lets a single fertilized egg grow into a whole organism._
2. One of the groups into which the teams of a sports league or competition are split, often by standard of play or by region.
   - Simple: A group of teams inside a sports league, often put together by skill or by area.
   - _After a poor season, the club was sent down to a lower division._
   - _The two rivals play in the same division, so they meet four times every season._
3. A high-level section of a large company or conglomerate, handling one area of its business.
   - Simple: A large section of a company that handles one part of its work.
   - _The firm sold off its overseas divisions to focus on its home market._
   - _He was promoted to head the consumer products division last spring._
4. Any of the separate parts that result from splitting something.
   - Simple: One of the parts you get when something is split up.
   - _After the estate was split up, each of the four divisions went to a different grandchild._
   - _Each division of the garden was planted with a different vegetable._
9. The arithmetic operation of finding how many times one number is contained in another, or a single calculation of this kind.
   - Simple: In math, working out how many times one number fits into another, or one problem worked out this way.
   - _Long division lets you work through larger numbers one step at a time._
   - _Division by zero is undefined in standard arithmetic._
5. A military formation, usually made up of two or three brigades together with supporting units.
   - Simple: A large army unit made up of several smaller groups.
   - _The general commanded an armored division throughout the campaign._
   - _Two divisions were held in reserve behind the front line._
6. A difference of viewpoint that separates people into two opposing sides of an argument.
   - Simple: A strong disagreement that splits people into opposing sides.
   - _A bitter division ran through the town over where to build the new road._
   - _The debate revealed long-standing divisions between the two factions._
7. An electoral area that elects one or more members to a parliament; a constituency. *(Australia)*
   - Simple: An area that elects one or more members to parliament.
   - _The candidate campaigned in every town across the division._
   - _Boundary changes merged two neighboring divisions before the election._
10. A method of counting votes in a legislature by separating members into groups, used to get a more accurate tally than a voice vote.
   - Simple: A way of voting in parliament where members split into groups to be counted.
   - _The house held a division on the contested amendment._
   - _Several divisions were forced before the session finally ended._
11. A rank of classification below kingdom and above class, used mainly for plants and fungi, and equivalent to a phylum in animals.
   - Simple: A large group used to sort plants or fungi, just below the kingdom level.
   - _Conifers belong to a different division of the plant kingdom from flowering plants._
   - _Botanists revised several plant divisions after new genetic evidence emerged._
8. One section of a government agency, police force, court, museum, or similar body, in charge of a single part of its work.
   - Simple: A part of a government office, police force, court, museum, or other group that does one kind of work.
   - _Detectives from the homicide division arrived within an hour of the call._
   - _Her custody case was transferred to the family division of the county court._

## Other meanings

- (noun) An optional classification rank in zoology, placed below the infraclass and above the legion and cohort.
- (noun) A legal principle under which co-debtors are each liable only for their proportionate share of a shared debt.
- (noun) Any of the four major sections that make up the source code of a COBOL program.
- (noun) A set of pipes in a pipe organ that are controlled and supplied with wind independently of the others.
- (noun) A florid variation of a melody, common in the 16th and 17th centuries, in which long notes are broken into runs of shorter ones.
- (noun) A lesson or class, in the usage of Eton College.

## Origin

This word came into Middle English as divisioun, borrowed from Old French division, which came from Latin dīvīsiō (accusative dīvīsiōnem), a noun formed from dīvīsus ("divided"), the participle of dīvidō ("divide").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/division (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).