fragment

American  

[frag-muhnt, frag-muhnt, -ment, frag-ment] / ˈfræg mənt, ˈfræg mənt, -mɛnt, frægˈmɛnt /

noun

• fragments
  plural

1. 

   a part broken off or detached.

   scattered fragments of the broken vase.

2. an isolated, unfinished, or incomplete part.

   She played a fragment of her latest composition.

3. an odd piece, bit, or scrap.

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verb (used without object)

• fragments,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fragmented,
  past participle,  past
• fragmenting
  present participle

1. to collapse or break into fragments; disintegrate.

   The chair fragmented under his weight.

verb (used with object)

• fragments,
  present (3rd person singular)
• fragmented,
  past participle,  past
• fragmenting
  present participle

1. to break (something) into pieces or fragments; cause to disintegrate.

   Outside influences soon fragmented the Mayan culture.

2. to divide into fragments; disunify.

3. Computers. to store (data from a file) in noncontiguous sectors on a disk drive, splitting the file into smaller pieces and breaking up available free space on the disk.

fragment British  

noun

1. a piece broken off or detached

   fragments of rock

2. an incomplete piece; portion

   fragments of a novel

3. a scrap; morsel; bit

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verb

1. to break or cause to break into fragments

Usage

What does fragment mean? A fragment is a piece that has been broken off of or detached from something else. Fragment most commonly refers to a part that has broken off rather than one that has been separated gently or intentionally, as in The vase smashed into a million fragments. A bone fragment is a (usually small) piece that has been chipped off from a bone. Fragment is also used to refer to a part or portion of something that is incomplete or isolated from the whole, such as a fragment of a movie or piece of music. Sometimes, fragment just means a piece, bit, or scrap (regardless of whether it has been removed from a larger part). As a verb, fragment can mean to break into pieces or disintegrate, as in The empire fragmented into multiple states after the emperor’s death. It can also mean to cause to break into pieces or disintegrate. Less commonly, it can mean to divide into fragments. Fragment is also used as a verb in a much more specific way in the context of computers, in which it means to store data files in a way that breaks them up. The opposite of this sense of fragment is defragment—to bringing the parts of the files back together. The word fragment is used in the formation of many related words, including adjectives, nouns, and verbs. The adjective fragmented describes things that have been broken into fragments or things that are or have been disorganized or disunified in some way. The adjective fragmentary means consisting of or reduced to fragments—disconnected or incomplete, as in fragmentary evidence. Fragmentation is the process of breaking into fragments. The verb fragmentize can mean to break something into fragments or separate it into parts, as in They’re going to fragmentize the corporation into several companies. It can also mean for something to break into fragments (without someone doing the fragmentizing). Example: The pirate captain tore the map into fragments, placing the pieces into separate bottles and scattering them across the seven seas.

Synonym Usage

See part.

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• fragments
  plural

Participles

• fragmenting
  present
• fragmented
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• fragment
  simple
• fragments
  simple
• have fragmented
  perfect
• has fragmented
  perfect
• am fragmenting
  progressive
• are fragmenting
  progressive
• is fragmenting
  progressive
• have been fragmenting
  perfect progressive
• has been fragmenting
  perfect progressive

Past

• fragmented
  simple
• had fragmented
  perfect
• was fragmenting
  progressive
• were fragmenting
  progressive
• had been fragmenting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will fragment
  simple
• will have fragmented
  perfect
• will be fragmenting
  progressive
• will have been fragmenting
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of fragment

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin fragmentum “a broken piece, remnant,” equivalent to frag- (stem of frangere “to break, shatter” ) + -mentum noun suffix; see origin at break, -ment

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Explanation

A fragment is a small piece that’s come off a larger whole, and to fragment is to break. If your teacher writes "frag" on your paper, you've got an incomplete sentence. Fragment, meaning "a tiny, brittle shard," first appeared as a noun and later as a verb. That afternoon you hacked away at the fireplace in your parents’ living room in search of secret treasure as a child? Those dusty chunks of brick you scattered all over their shag carpet were fragments of a once-intact wall, and a happier time before you were grounded. Not only did you cause physical damage that day, but you also fragmented their trust in you.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fragment fragments fragmented fragmenting

Front-runner “La Bola Negra” weaves together the fragment of an iconic poet’s real-life, unfinished final play with another author’s play about the death of that poet’s real-life lover.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026

"This phenomenon is one possible explanation for the discovery of a large metal fragment in a palm oil plantation in Sampit," he said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026

By comparing the fragment with fossils from related dinosaurs, researchers were able to estimate what this long-extinct animal might have looked like and how it lived.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

Every grog tempered vessel examined by the researchers contained what is known as multigenerational grog, in which one fragment of grog contains an even older piece of grog inside it.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

Striking the Earth’s atmosphere, a modest cometary fragment would produce a great radiant fireball and a mighty blast wave, which would burn trees, level forests and be heard around the world.

From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan

Using these fragments, the scientists were able to partially reconstruct the damaged area.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 31, 2026

By recognizing the surviving fragments of these ancient structures, scientists can better reconstruct how tectonic plates descended beneath one another, how volcanic arcs shifted, how continental crust grew, and how once-vast oceans eventually closed.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 28, 2026

Revealing fragments of this information to the public should improve market forecasts of Fed policy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026

The tree fragments lying in BioFiltro’s beds seemed to serve a beneficial purpose.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

While Jacques Cousteau recovered bone fragments during his 1976 Antikythera exploration, the skull was part of the most complete skeleton that had been found at the Antikythera site.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler

As Michael Cox wrote in 1983, “nothing fragmented the completeness, nothing disturbed the balance of Monty James’s personality.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

From her vantage point, the current system is fragmented with no clear authority.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Without this protein, the mitochondrial network becomes fragmented.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

The response also suffered because of the fragmented nature of the system, with thousands of different providers and services overseen by councils.

From BBC ● Oct. 20, 2026

Someone who has a little bit of a problem with fragmented sentences and accidental self-disclosures.

From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli

Capturing a comet in the act of fragmenting is something the team had long hoped to achieve.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2026

That is fragmenting commerce and fueling price volatility.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026

Planetesimals frequently crash into each other, sometimes merging into larger bodies and sometimes fragmenting into smaller ones.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 6, 2025

Prolonged uncertainty over trade policy is, in the Fund's view, likely to weigh on business investment decisions and cloud growth prospects, while fragmenting supply chains over the medium term.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025

When I open my eyes, the world looks slightly fractured, and it takes a minute to realize that the sun must be well up and the glasses fragmenting my vision.

From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

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Related Words

• bit
• chunk
• hunk
• lump
• particle
• piece
• portion
• remnant
• scrap
• shred
• sliver

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