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

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

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

See Examples For:

partial

He had a complex partial seizure while delivering an on-camera speech on the House floor last year, stopping midsentence before continuing to speak in a slow and halting voice for more than 30 seconds.

From Slate ● Sep. 2, 2026

The liver is unusual among major human organs because it can regenerate after significant damage or even partial removal.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 31, 2026

Most of the short-term loans went to black-box limited-liability companies, or LLCs, with little public footprint, leaving a partial picture of what exactly Walter’s insurers invested in.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 30, 2026

A previous helium oversupply, a partial production rebound in Qatar and industry efforts to shore up helium stockpiles have helped keep the substance available.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 30, 2026

The sun was already westing toward evening, and the trees where they were had plunged them into a partial dude.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

Related Words

• one-sided
• unfair