partial

[ pahr-shuhl ]

adjective

1. being such in part only; not total or general; incomplete: a partial payment of a debt.

   partial blindness;

   a partial payment of a debt.

   Synonyms: limited, imperfect, unfinished

   Antonyms: complete

2. biased or prejudiced in favor of a person, group, side, etc., over another, as in a controversy:

   a partial witness.

   Synonyms: unjust, unfair, one-sided

   Antonyms: fair, unbiased

3. pertaining to or affecting a part.

   Antonyms: complete

4. being a part; component; constituent.
5. Botany. secondary or subordinate:

   a partial umbel.

noun

1. Bridge. part-score.
2. Acoustics, Music. partial tone.

partial

/ ˈpɑːʃəl /

adjective

1. relating to only a part; not general or complete

   a partial eclipse

2. biased

   a partial judge

3. postpositivefoll byto having a particular liking (for)
4. botany
   1. constituting part of a larger structure

      a partial umbel

   2. used for only part of the life cycle of a plant

      a partial habitat

   3. (of a parasite) not exclusively parasitic
5. maths designating or relating to an operation in which only one of a set of independent variables is considered at a time

noun

1. Also calledpartial tone music acoustics any of the component tones of a single musical sound, including both those that belong to the harmonic series of the sound and those that do not
2. maths a partial derivative

Usage

See partly

Derived Forms

• ˈpartialness, noun
• ˈpartially, adverb

Other Words From

• par·tial·ly adverb
• par·tial·ness noun
• non·par·tial adjective
• o·ver·par·tial adjective
• o·ver·par·tial·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of partial¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English parcial “biased, particular,” from Middle French, from Late Latin partiālis “pertaining to a part,” equivalent to Latin parti- (stem of pars ) “piece, portion” + -ālis adjective suffix; part, -al ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of partial¹

C15: from Old French parcial, from Late Latin partiālis incomplete, from Latin pars part

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. partial to, having a liking or preference for; particularly fond of:

   I'm partial to chocolate cake.

Related Words

• one-sided
• unfair