partial

American  

[pahr-shuhl] / ˈpɑr ʃəl /

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.

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noun

1. Bridge. part-score.

2. Acoustics, Music. partial tone.

idioms

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

   I'm partial to chocolate cake.

partial British  

/ ˈpɑːʃəl /

adjective

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

   a partial eclipse

2. biased

   a partial judge

3. 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

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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

Other Word Forms

• nonpartial
  adjective
• overpartial
  adjective
• overpartialness
  noun
• partially
  adverb
• partialness
  noun

Etymology

Origin of partial

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, -al ¹

Explanation

If you describe something as partial, you're usually saying it's just part of the whole, or incomplete. Say someone asks how you started your band and you say, "I bought a guitar." That would be a partial answer, at best. Partial has another meaning, too. If you say you are partial to something, you are expressing a fondness for it. Or not. If someone asks you whether you still love your husband after 50 years of marriage, for example, and you say, "I'm partial to him," you're either joking or politely saying "Not really." Being partial to something is to love as a warm stove is to a bonfire.

Example Sentences

Partial differential equations extend this idea further by capturing how systems evolve across both space and time.

From Science Daily • May 6, 2026

Partial fixes or temporary workarounds would likely only stabilize markets briefly.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 17, 2026

Appeared in the February 14, 2026, print edition as 'How a Partial Shutdown Hits Homeland Security Funding'.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 12, 2026

Partial records have been released that named Andrew as a passenger on a flight with Epstein.

From BBC • Oct. 31, 2025

Partial involucre, same as an involucel; partial petiole, a division of a main leaf-stalk or the stalk of a leaflet; partial peduncle, a branch of a peduncle; partial umbel, an umbellet, 76.

From The Elements of Botany For Beginners and For Schools by Gray, Asa

Related Words

• one-sided
• unfair