partial

[ pahr-shuhl ]
See synonyms for: partialpartialspartiallypartialness on Thesaurus.com

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

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

  1. pertaining to or affecting a part.

  2. being a part; component; constituent.

  3. Botany. secondary or subordinate: a partial umbel.

noun
  1. Bridge. part-score.

  2. Acoustics, Music. partial tone.

Idioms about partial

  1. partial to, having a liking or preference for; particularly fond of: I'm partial to chocolate cake.

Origin of partial

1
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; see part, -al1

Other words for partial

Opposites for partial

Other words from partial

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

Words that may be confused with partial

Words Nearby partial

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use partial in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for partial

partial

/ (ˈpɑːʃəl) /


adjective
  1. relating to only a part; not general or complete: a partial eclipse

  2. biased: a partial judge

  1. (postpositive foll by to) having a particular liking (for)

  2. botany

    • constituting part of a larger structure: a partial umbel

    • used for only part of the life cycle of a plant: a partial habitat

    • (of a parasite) not exclusively parasitic

  3. 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 called: partial 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

Origin of partial

1
C15: from Old French parcial, from Late Latin partiālis incomplete, from Latin pars part

partial

See partly

Derived forms of partial

  • partially, adverb
  • partialness, noun

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