different between portion vs period

English

Etymology

From Middle English porcioun, borrowed from Old French porcion, from Latin portio (“a share, part, portion, relation, proportion”), akin to pars (“part”); see part. Compare proportion.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?p????n/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?p????n/
• (Scotland, Ireland, other varieties without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /?po????n/, /?po????n/, /?po???n/
• Rhymes: -??(?)??n

Noun

portion (plural portions)

1. An allocated amount.
2. That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything.
3. One's fate; lot.
   • Man's portion is to die and rise again.

4. The part of an estate given or falling to a child or heir; an inheritance.
5. A wife's fortune; a dowry.
   • 1613, William Shakespeare, The Two Noble Kinsmen, V. iv. 31:

     Commend me to her, and to piece her portion / Tender her this.

Usage notes

Relatively formal, compared to the more informal part or more concrete and casual piece. For example, “part of the money” (both informal) but “portion of the proceeds” (both formal).

Synonyms

• part
• piece

Derived terms

• portionless
• proportion
• underportion

Translations

Verb

portion (third-person singular simple present portions, present participle portioning, simple past and past participle portioned)

1. (transitive) To divide into amounts, as for allocation to specific purposes.
2. (transitive) To endow with a portion or inheritance.
   • 1733, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Bathurst

     Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest.

Translations

Usage notes

• Particularly used as portion out.
• Relatively formal, compared to the more informal divide, divide up, or the casual divvy, divvy up.

Synonyms

• apportion
• divide, divide up
• divvy, divvy up

Derived terms

• portion off
• portion out

Further reading

• portion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• portion in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin portionem (accusative singular of portio).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p??.sj??/

Noun

portion f (plural portions)

1. portion

Descendants

• ? Turkish: porsiyon

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• potiron

Interlingua

Noun

portion (plural portiones)

1. portion

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

portion c

1. serving, an helping of food

Declension

Related terms

• portionera

English

Alternative forms

• per. (abbreviation)

Etymology

From Middle English periode, from Middle French periode, from Medieval Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (períodos, “circuit, period of time, path around”), from ????- (perí-, “around”) + ???? (hodós, “way”). Displaced native Middle English tide (“interval, period, season”), from Old English t?d (“time, period, season”), Middle English elde (“age, period”), from Old English ieldu (“age, period of time”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?p??.ri.?d/, IPA^(key): /?p??.r?.?d/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?r.i.?d/, IPA^(key): /?p?r.?.?d/

Noun

period (plural periods)

1. A length of time. [from 17th c.]
2. A period of time in history seen as a single coherent entity; an epoch, era. [from 16th c.]
3. (now chiefly Canada, US) The punctuation mark “.” (indicating the ending of a sentence or marking an abbreviation).
4. (figuratively) An decisive end to something; a stop.
5. The length of time during which the same characteristics of a periodic phenomenon recur, such as the repetition of a wave or the rotation of a planet. [from 17th c.]
6. Female menstruation. [from 18th c.]

7. A section of an artist's, writer's (etc.) career distinguished by a given quality, preoccupation etc. [from 19th c.]

8. Each of the divisions into which a school day is split, allocated to a given subject or activity. [from 19th c.]

9. (sports, chiefly ice hockey) Each of the intervals, typically three, of which a game is divided. [from 19th c.]

10. (sports, chiefly ice hockey) One or more additional intervals to decide a tied game, an overtime period.

11. (obsolete, medicine) The length of time for a disease to run its course. [15th-19th c.]
12. An end or conclusion; the final point of a process etc. [from 16th c.]
13. (rhetoric) A complete sentence, especially one expressing a single thought or making a balanced, rhythmic whole. [from 16th c.]
    • 1641, Ben Jonson, Timber

      Periods are beautiful when they are not too long.

    • 1644, John Milton, Aeropagitica:

      that such iron moulds as these shall have autority to knaw out the choicest periods of exquisitest books, and to commit such a treacherous fraud against the orphan remainders of worthiest men after death, the more sorrow will belong to that haples race of men, whose misfortune it is to have understanding.

    • 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Penguin 2004, p. 118:

      In declamatory periods Dr Fordyce spins out Rousseau's eloquence […].

    • 1853, Charles Dickens, Bleak House, ch 1:

      A very superior gentleman, Mr. Kenge. Truly eloquent indeed. Some of his periods quite majestic!
14. (obsolete) A specific moment during a given process; a point, a stage. [17th-19th c.]
    • 1720, Alexander Pope, translating Homer, Iliad, Book IV (note 125):

      The Death of Patroclus was the most eminent Period; and consequently the most proper Time for such Games.

15. (chemistry) A row in the periodic table of the elements. [from 19th c.]
16. (geology) A subdivision of an era, typically lasting from tens to hundreds of millions of years, see Appendix: Geologic timescale.

17. (genetics) A Drosophila gene, the gene product of which is involved in regulation of the circadian rhythm.
18. (music) Two phrases (an antecedent and a consequent phrase).
19. (mathematics) The length of an interval over which a periodic function, periodic sequence or repeating decimal repeats; often the least such length.
20. (archaic) End point, conclusion.
    • 1590, Robert Greene, Greenes Mourning Garment, London: Thomas Newman, “The Shepheards Tale,” p. 17,^[4]

      As thus all gazed on hir, so she glaunced hir lookes on all, surueying them as curiously, as they noted hir exactly, but at last she set downe her period on the face of Alexis […]

    • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 1,^[5]

      And if my death might make this island happy,

      And prove the period of their tyranny,

      I would expend it with all willingness:

    • 1629, John Beaumont, “A Description of Love” in Bosworth-field with a Taste of the Variety of Other Poems, London: Henry Seile, p. 100,^[6]

      When Loue thus in his Center ends,

      Desire and Hope, his inward friends

      Are shaken off: while Doubt and Griefe,

      The weakest giuers of reliefe,

      Stand in his councell as the chiefe:

      And now he to his period brought,

      From Loue becomes some other thought.

    • 1651, William Cartwright, The Ordinary, London: Humphrey Moseley, Act III, Scene 5, p. 51,^[7]

      Set up an hour-glasse; hee’l go on untill

      The last sand make his Period.

Synonyms

• (punctuation mark “.”): point; full stop (UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa); dot (computing, abbreviations); full-point, plain point (obsolete)
• (menstrual period): see also Thesaurus:menstruation.
• See also Thesaurus:period

Antonyms

• (length of time of recurrence of a periodic phenomenon): frequency

Hyponyms

• pseudoperiod

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

period (not comparable)

1. Designating anything from a given historical era. (Can we add an example for this sense?)

   a period car

   a period TV commercial

2. Evoking, or appropriate for, a particular historical period, especially through the use of elaborate costumes and scenery.
   • 2004, Mark Singer, Somewhere in America, Houghton Mifflin, page 70:

     As the guests arrived — there were about a hundred, a majority in period attire — I began to feel out of place in my beige summer suit, white shirt, and red necktie. Then I got over it. I certainly didn't suffer from Confederate-uniform envy.

Interjection

period

1. (chiefly Canada, US) That's final; that's the end of the matter (analogous to a period ending a sentence); end of story

   I know you don't want to go to the dentist, but your teeth need to be checked, period!

Synonyms

• (that's final): full stop

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Unsupported titles

Punctuation

Further reading

• Period on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Period in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• period in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• period at OneLook Dictionary Search

Verb

period (third-person singular simple present periods, present participle perioding, simple past and past participle perioded)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To come to a period; to conclude.
   • 1623, Owen Feltham, Resolves: Divine, Moral, Political

     For you may period upon this, that where there is the most pity for others, there is the greatest misery in the party pitied.

2. (obsolete, transitive, rare) To put an end to.

Anagrams

• -poride, dopier, dorpie

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Latin periodus, from Ancient Greek ???????? (períodos).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /per?od/
• Hyphenation: pe?ri?od

Noun

perìod m (Cyrillic spelling ??????)

1. period (of time)

Declension

References

• “period” in Hrvatski jezi?ni portal

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?r?ju?d/
• Rhymes: -u?d

Noun

period c

1. a period, a limited amount of time
2. (ice hockey, floorball) period

Declension

Related terms

• brunstperiod
• periodare
• periodicitet
• periodisering
• periodisk
• periodkort
• periodvis