fragment

Pluralfragments

Formsfragments, fragmenting, fragmented

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A part broken off something, or a small detached piece, whether physical or otherwise.

   Archaeologists rebuilt much of the vase from a single fragment.

   He could recall only fragments of the conversation afterward.

   Similarpiece, bit, scrap, chunk, chip

   Oppositewhole

   Note

   The sense every other one grows from: Latin fragmentum, built on frangō, "to break", so a fragment is by origin something broken off. It reaches well beyond stones and pottery to writing and talk, as in fragments of a prose Life of Alexander or a fragment of a conversation. It usually takes of before the whole it came from.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A string of words missing a subject or a predicate, and so failing to form a complete sentence.

   The editor flagged a fragment that was missing its verb.

   Writers sometimes use fragments deliberately for emphasis.

   Note

   A term from the grammar classroom and the editor's margin, short for sentence fragment. What exposes a fragment is its punctuation: it opens with a capital and closes with a period, as a sentence would, but it lacks a subject or a finite verb to stand on. In formal prose it is treated as a fault. In skilled hands it becomes a deliberate stroke of emphasis.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To cause something to break into pieces.

   Repeated freezing can fragment the stone over many winters.

   The explosion fragmented the windshield into countless pieces.

   Similarshatter, break, splinter, fracture, smash

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To break apart into separate pieces.

   The old alliance began to fragment into rival camps.

   Under pressure, the committee fragmented into competing factions.

   Similarsplinter, split, fracture, disintegrate, divide

   Oppositeunite, unify, coalesce, merge

   Note

   Used without an object, the verb readily describes groups and powers coming apart, not just physical things. Charles Hugh Smith writes of the moment "the centralized power of Rome fragmented." The result is usually introduced with into (fragment into rival camps). When someone or something does the breaking, English switches to its causative partner.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   An incomplete portion of computer code.

   The developer shared a fragment that handled the login step.

   Several fragments were combined into one working module.

   Similarsnippet

   Note

   Programmers use it for a piece of code lifted out of its setting, shared to show how one step works or kept for reuse. A fragment will not run by itself, because the surrounding program supplies what it lacks. It often appears as code fragment, and fragments are routinely stitched together into a larger, working module.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   The portion of a URL after the # sign, pointing to a subordinate resource or a specific point on a web page.

   Clicking the menu item appends a fragment to the URL.

   The fragment after the hash scrolls the page to a named anchor.

   Similaranchor, hash

   Note

   In web addresses the fuller name is fragment identifier, and the short and long forms are used interchangeably. Everything after the hash is handled by the browser rather than sent to the server, which is why a page can jump to a named anchor without loading anything new. Michael Mahemoff's Ajax Design Patterns (2006) warns that designing these fragments has usability consequences.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To break up a file and spread its pieces across non-contiguous areas of a disk.

   Frequent writes will fragment the file into pieces spread across the disk.

   The operating system fragmented the database as it grew.

   Oppositedefragment

   Note

   A storage term for what happens when a file is written in scattered pieces. Its data ends up in clusters that no longer sit next to one another on the disk, so reading it straight through takes longer. The file is the usual object, and the passive (the file was fragmented) is at least as common as the active.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A piece split from an organism during asexual reproduction, which then develops into a new individual.

   Each fragment of the flatworm regenerated into a separate worm.

   Gardeners propagate the plant from fragments that root on their own.

   Similarpiece, segment

   Note

   Biology calls the whole process fragmentation, and the noun names the piece it leaves behind. That piece might be a section of flatworm, a broken strand of alga or a shoot that regrows everything it is missing. Because no mating is involved, each fragment grows into a genetically identical copy of its parent.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   Of an organism, to split into pieces, each of which then grows into a new individual.

   Certain sea anemones fragment to produce genetically identical offspring.

   Under stress, the alga fragmented into several growing pieces.

   Similarsplit, divide

   Note

   The verb for the process whose pieces are the biological noun. The organism is always the subject, and the verb takes no object: an anemone or an alga fragments of its own accord. That sets it apart from the everyday "break into pieces" verb, where damage comes from outside. Here the splitting is a way of multiplying.

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