# portion

Pronunciation: US say "POR-shuhn" /ˈpɔɹʃən/; UK say "PAW-shuhn" /ˈpɔːʃən/

## Noun

1. A part or section of a whole; any piece of something, whether or not it has been separated from the rest.
   - Simple: A part or piece of something bigger.
   - _A large portion of the manuscript was lost in the fire._
   - _Engineers replaced the corroded portions of the pipeline._
2. An amount allocated to a person or purpose, especially an amount of food for one person.
   - Simple: An amount of something given to each person or set aside for a purpose.
   - _The recipe makes six generous portions._
   - _Each department received its portion of the annual budget._
4. The share of a person's estate that is handed over or passes to a child or other heir.
   - Simple: The share of a family's money or property that is given to a child or heir.
   - _The will set aside a portion for each of the five children._
   - _He squandered his portion within a year of his father's death._
5. One's fate or lot in life; what falls to a person as their share of experience. *(literary)*
   - Simple: The life or luck that comes to a person, whether good or bad.
   - _Grief, it seemed, was to be his portion._
   - _The settlers accepted hardship as the portion of anyone who chose the frontier._

## Verb

3. To divide something into amounts, as when allocating it to specific people or purposes.
   - Simple: To divide something into amounts so each person or use gets some.
   - _Restaurants portion their ingredients in advance to keep costs steady._
   - _The committee portioned the grant money among three projects._

## Noun

6. The money or property a wife brings to her husband at marriage; a dowry. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Money or property that a woman brings to her husband when they marry.
   - _He married her for her portion, not her company, and everyone knew it._
   - _Her father had saved for years so she would bring a respectable portion to her marriage._

## Verb

7. To provide someone with an inheritance, dowry, or settled share of property. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To give someone money or property as their share, often when they marry or a parent dies.
   - _The merchant portioned his daughters generously, and all three married well._
   - _Fathers were expected to portion every child before dividing what remained of the estate._

## Origin

Latin "portio" (a share, part, or proportion), related to "pars" (part), passed into Old French as "porcion," and Middle English borrowed it as "porcioun."

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