fractionation
Americannoun
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the act or process of fractionating.
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the state of being fractionated.
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Military. the division of a missile's payload into several warheads.
Etymology
Origin of fractionation
First recorded in 1925–30; fractionate + -ion
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Keyera’s planned takeover, unveiled in June of last year, would establish a natural-gas-liquids corridor in Canada for the company, with assets that include extraction, fractionation and storage operations, as well as rail and truck terminals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
The study, titled "Extreme triple oxygen isotope fractionation in Equisetum," examines horsetails, which are hollow-stemmed plants that have existed on the planet for more than 400 million years.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 13, 2025
“As a result, that kind of fractionation really doesn’t help you understand either the level of investment very directly, or the impact,” Wayburn said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2024
At divergent boundaries and oceanic mantle plumes, where there is little interaction with crustal materials and magma fractionation to create felsic melts does not take place, the magma tends to be consistently mafic.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Whether there is also a natural fractionation and improvement of the first heavy oils as they undergo repeated migrations is not known.
From The Economic Aspect of Geology by C. K. (Charles Kenneth) Leith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
