different between portion vs sentence

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

Etymology

Borrowing from Middle French sentence, from Latin sententia (“way of thinking, opinion, sentiment”), from senti?ns, present participle of senti? (“to feel, think”); see sentient, sentience, sense, scent.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?nt?ns/
  • (General American) IPA^(key): [?s?ntn?t?s], [?s?n?n?t?s]
• Hyphenation: sen?tence

Noun

sentence (plural sentences)

1. (dated) The decision or judgement of a jury or court; a verdict. [from 14th c.]

2. The judicial order for a punishment to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime. [from 14th c.]
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.

3. A punishment imposed on a person convicted of a crime.
4. (obsolete) A saying, especially from a great person; a maxim, an apophthegm. [14th-19th c.]
   • 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 206:

     I am told that she writes well, and that all her letters are full of sentences.

5. (grammar) A grammatically complete series of words consisting of a subject and predicate, even if one or the other is implied, and typically beginning with a capital letter and ending with a full stop. [from 15th c.]

6. (logic) A formula with no free variables. [from 20th c.]
7. (computing theory) Any of the set of strings that can be generated by a given formal grammar. [from 20th c.]
8. (obsolete) Sense; meaning; significance.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. General Prologue:

     Noght o word spak he moore than was neede,

     And that was seyd in forme and reverence

     And short and quyk and ful of hy sentence ...

   • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:

     now to the discourse itself, voluble enough, and full of sentence, but that, for the most part, either specious rather than solid, or to his cause nothing pertinent.
9. (obsolete) One's opinion; manner of thinking. [14th-17th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II:

     My sentence is for open war.

10. (now rare) A pronounced opinion or judgment on a given question. [from 14th c.]
    • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to some Considerations, the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation

      By them [Luther's works] we might pass sentence upon his doctrines.

Synonyms

• verdict
• conviction

Hypernyms

• (logic): formula

Hyponyms

• (grammar): affirmative sentence, complex sentence, compound sentence, conditional sentence, simple sentence

Related terms

• sentential

Translations

Verb

sentence (third-person singular simple present sentences, present participle sentencing, simple past and past participle sentenced)

1. To declare a sentence on a convicted person; to doom; to condemn to punishment.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I,

     The murderer, he recalled, had been tried and sentenced to imprisonment for life, but was pardoned by a merciful governor after serving a year of his sentence.
2. (obsolete) To decree or announce as a sentence.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

3. (obsolete) To utter sententiously.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Feltham to this entry?)

Translations

Further reading

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

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?s?nt?nt?s?]
• Hyphenation: sen?ten?ce

Noun

sentence f

1. sentence (formula with no free variables)
2. sentence (grammar)

Declension

Synonyms

• (grammar): v?ta

French

Etymology

From Old French sentence, from Latin sententia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /s??.t??s/

Noun

sentence f (plural sentences)

1. sentence
2. verdict
3. maxim, saying, adage

Latvian

Noun

sentence f (5th declension)

1. aphorism
2. maxim

Declension

Synonyms

• aforisms
• domu grauds

Middle French

Etymology

From Latin sententia.

Noun

sentence f (plural sentences)

1. sentence (judgement; verdict)
2. sentence (grammatically complete series of words)