segment

Etymology

From Latin segmentum (“a piece cut off, a strip, segment of the earth, a strip of tinsel”), from secāre (“to cut”).

noun

1. A length of some object.
   a segment of rope
2. One of the parts into which any body naturally separates or is divided; a part divided or cut off; a section; a portion.
   a segment of an orange; a segment of a compound or divided leaf
   The ability of a segment of a glass sphere to magnify whatever is placed before it was known around the year 1000, when the spherical segment was called a reading stone,[…]. Scribes, illuminators, and scholars held such stones directly over manuscript pages as an aid in seeing what was being written, drawn, or read. 2013 September-October, Henry Petroski, “The Evolution of Eyeglasses”, in American Scientist
3. (mathematics) A portion.
   1. A straight path between two points that is the shortest distance between them.
   2. (geometry) The part of a circle between its circumference and a chord (usually other than the diameter).
   3. (geometry) The part of a sphere cut off by a plane.
   4. (topology) Any of the pieces that constitute an order tree.
4. (sciences) A portion.
   1. (phonology) A discrete unit of speech: a consonant or a vowel.
   2. (botany) A portion of an organ whose cells are derived from a single cell within the primordium from which the organ developed.
   3. (zoology) One of several parts of an organism, with similar structure, arranged in a chain; such as a vertebra, or a third of an insect's thorax.
5. (broadcasting) A part of a broadcast program, devoted to a topic.
   The news showed a segment on global warming.
   In “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes, the rules aren’t just different—they don’t even exist. If writers want Homer to kill Flanders or for a segment to end with a marriage between a woman and a giant ape, they can do so without worrying about continuity or consistency or fans griping that the gang is behaving out of character. April 29, 2012, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
6. (computing) An Ethernet bus.
7. (computing) A region of memory or a fragment of an executable file designated to contain a particular part of a program.
8. (travel) A portion of an itinerary: it may be a flight or train between two cities, or a car or hotel booked in a particular city.
9. (heraldry) A bearing representing only one part of a rounded object.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To divide into segments or sections.
   Segment the essay by topic.