fractioning

Pluralfractionings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act of dividing or breaking something into separate parts, or fractions.

   The fractioning of the company into regional units complicated central reporting.

   Repeated fractioning of the dataset into smaller subsets slowed the whole analysis.

   Similardivision, splitting, fragmentation, partitioning, segmentation

   Oppositeconsolidation, unification, merging

   Note

   The noun works both ways. It is uncountable for the process in general (repeated fractioning of the dataset) and countable for one particular act of division, with the plural fractionings. It usually takes an of-phrase naming what is divided, as in the fractioning of the company. That is how to tell it from the gerund, which takes a direct object instead.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of fraction.

   The refinery is fractioning crude oil into gasoline and diesel.

   By fractioning the funds across departments, the manager spread the risk.

   Note

   One spelling, two jobs: this -ing form of fraction serves as the participle in progressive tenses (is fractioning crude oil) and as a gerund heading a phrase (by fractioning the funds). Either way it is transitive and takes a direct object. Beyond plain division, the verb can also mean fractionate, the term for separating a mixture into its components, as a refinery does with crude oil.

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