segment

American  

[seg-muhnt, seg-ment, seg-ment] / ˈsɛg mənt, ˈsɛg mɛnt, sɛgˈmɛnt /

noun

1. one of the parts into which something naturally separates or is divided; a division, portion, or section.

   a segment of an orange.

2. Geometry.

   1. a part cut off from a figure, especially a circular or spherical one, by a line or plane, as a part of a circular area contained by an arc and its chord or by two parallel lines or planes.

   2. Also called line segment.  a finite section of a line.

3. Zoology.

   1. any of the rings that compose the body of an annelid or arthropod.

   2. any of the discrete parts of the body of an animal, especially of an arthropod.

4. an object, as a machine part, having the form of a segment or sector of a circle.

5. Computers.

   1. a portion of a program, often one that can be loaded and executed independently of other portions.

   2. a unit of data in a database.

6. an arclike support on which the typebars of a typewriter rest when not in use.

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verb (used with or without object)

1. to separate or divide into segments.

segment British  

/ ˈsɛɡməntərɪ, -trɪ /

noun

1. maths

   1. a part of a line or curve between two points

   2. a part of a plane or solid figure cut off by an intersecting line, plane, or planes, esp one between a chord and an arc of a circle

2. one of several parts or sections into which an object is divided; portion

3. zoology any of the parts into which the body or appendages of an annelid or arthropod are divided

4. linguistics a speech sound considered in isolation

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verb

1. to cut or divide (a whole object) into segments

segment Scientific  

/ sĕg′mənt /

1. The portion of a line between any two of its points.

2. The region bounded by an arc of a circle and the chord that connects the endpoints of the arc.

3. The portion of a sphere included between a pair of parallel planes that intersect it or are tangent to it.

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Related Words

See part.

Other Word Forms

• intersegment noun
• multisegment adjective
• multisegmented adjective
• nonsegmentary adjective
• nonsegmented adjective
• segmentary adjective
• segmentate adjective
• unsegmentary adjective
• unsegmented adjective

Etymology

Origin of segment

First recorded in 1560–70; from Latin segmentum, equivalent to sec(āre) “to cut” + -mentum -ment

Explanation

A segment is one of several pieces that together create a whole. You could offer a segment of your orange to your girlfriend as a Valentine's Day gift. She’ll probably enjoy the orange, but she may break up with you. Lots of things can have segments. You can talk about a segment of a talk show, a segment of a sphere, or the segment of students in your high school who want to join the Drama Club — the ones singing and dancing in the cafeteria every day. You can also use segment as a verb: when you chop down that oak tree in your front yard, you have to segment the trunk into smaller pieces for firewood.

Example Sentences

“Here we also expect to see solid demand as the curve is steep in this segment and the greenium is modest,” the chief analyst says.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

Notably, Amazon doesn’t break out chip revenue as a separate business segment, but essentially charges Amazon Web Services cloud computing customers to reflect the chips, which are part of the entire service.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

He expects demand to continue climbing for the rest of the year, specifically in its enterprise segment that he estimates makes up about 60% of its overall revenue for server CPUs.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026

That segment of the show largely stripped out the guitars to focus on clubby techno and nasty slashes of synth noise.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 12, 2026

When I was kicked off the team, the Freedom Writers were asked to come to New York to receive the Spirit of Anne Frank Award and also to tape a segment for Prime Time Live.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers

Related Words

• division
• piece
• portion
• section
• sector
• slice