different between fraction vs length

English

Etymology

From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraction, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus (English fracture), past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg- (English break).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?k?sh?n, IPA^(key): /?f?æk.??n/
• Rhymes: -æk??n

Noun

fraction (plural fractions)

1. A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
2. (arithmetic) A ratio of two numbers, the numerator and the denominator, usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar.
3. (chemistry) A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
4. In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
5. A small amount.
6. The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:fraction.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

fraction (third-person singular simple present fractions, present participle fractioning, simple past and past participle fractioned)

1. To divide or break into fractions.

Translations

References

• “fraction” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “fraction”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ?ISBN
• "fraction" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• Croftian, factor in, infocrat

French

Etymology

From Old French fraction, borrowed from Latin fractio, fractionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?ak.sj??/

Noun

fraction f (plural fractions)

1. fraction (small amount)

2. (mathematics) fraction

3. fraction, breakup

Derived terms

• barre de fraction
• fractionnaire
• fractionner

Related terms

• fracture

Further reading

• “fraction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• fronçait

English

Etymology

From Middle English lengthe, from Old English lengþu (“longness; length”), from Proto-West Germanic *langiþu, from Proto-Germanic *langiþ?, equivalent to long +? -th. Cognate with Scots lenth, lainth (“length”), Saterland Frisian Loangte (“length”), West Frisian lingte, langte (“length”), Dutch lengte (“length”), German Low German Längde, Längd, Längte, Längt (“length”), Danish længde (“length”), Swedish längd (“length”), Icelandic lengd (“length”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: l?ng(k)th, l?n(t)th, IPA^(key): /l??(k)?/, /l?n(t)?/
• Rhymes: -??k?, -???, -?nt?, -?n?

Noun

length (countable and uncountable, plural lengths)

1. The distance measured along the longest dimension of an object.
2. Duration.
   • 1941, Robert Frost, The Gift Outright

     Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

3. (horse racing) The length of a horse, used to indicate the distance between horses at the end of a race.
4. (mathematics) Distance between the two ends of a line segment.
5. (cricket) The distance down the pitch that the ball bounces on its way to the batsman.
6. (figuratively) Total extent.

7. Part of something that is long; a physical piece of something.

8. (theater) A unit of script length, comprising 42 lines.
   • 1890, Henry Austin, Address of Henry Austin Before the Second Nationalist Club (page 38)

     […] open your book of the play, which you have previously carefully perused, and at the same time marked with the proper calls, as thus: a length (or 42 lines) before an entrance, with a pen make a figure on the margin, […]

   • 1960, J. L. Hodgkinson, ?Rex Pogson, The Early Manchester Theatre (page 45)

     The boy was engaged to write out parts at a penny a length (42 lines) for Chetwood, who then charged the manager, […]

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

length (third-person singular simple present lengths, present participle lengthing, simple past and past participle lengthed)

1. (obsolete) To lengthen.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, The Passionate Pilgrim, XIV. 30:

     Pack night, peep day; good day, of night now borrow: / Short night, to-night, and length thyself to-morrow.

   • 1552, Richard Huloet, "Ladies of Destinie" in Abecedarium Anglico-Latinum

     Was never man such favour could off atall ladies fynde, To cause them lengthe or shorte the day which they to hym assynde.

   • a. 1608, Thomas Sackville, Allegorical Personages described in Hell

     [He] knows full well life doth but length his pain.