noun , verb
■ noun / ˈsegmənt; NAmE /
1.
a part of sth that is separate from the other parts or can be considered separately :
She cleaned a small segment of the painting.
Lines divided the area into segments.
2.
one of the sections of an orange, a lemon, etc.
—picture at grapefruit
3.
( geometry ) a part of a circle separated from the rest by a single line
—picture at circle
4.
( phonetics ) the smallest speech sound that a word can be divided into
■ verb
/ segˈment/ [ vn ] [ often passive ] ( technical ) to divide sth into different parts :
Market researchers often segment the population on the basis of age and social class.
The worm has a segmented body (= with different sections joined together) .
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WORD ORIGIN
late 16th cent. (as a term in geometry): from Latin segmentum , from secare to cut. The verb dates from the mid 19th cent.