segment

American  

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

noun

• segments
  plural

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)

• segments,
  present (3rd person singular)
• segmented,
  past participle,  past
• segmenting
  present participle

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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Synonym Usage

See part.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• segments
  plural

Participles

• segmenting
  present
• segmented
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• segment
  simple
• segments
  simple
• have segmented
  perfect
• has segmented
  perfect
• am segmenting
  progressive
• are segmenting
  progressive
• is segmenting
  progressive
• have been segmenting
  perfect progressive
• has been segmenting
  perfect progressive

Past

• segmented
  simple
• had segmented
  perfect
• was segmenting
  progressive
• were segmenting
  progressive
• had been segmenting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will segment
  simple
• will have segmented
  perfect
• will be segmenting
  progressive
• will have been segmenting
  perfect progressive

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

See Examples For:

segment segments segmented segmenting

Wilkinson noted that the program — which was given the exemption in 2002 — has avoided using clips of politicians during its popular “Hot Topics” segment at the top of the program.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

Friday's edition of the ITV show began at 10:00 BST with Hammond and her regular co-host O'Leary at the helm, before she left at 11:30 during a segment about pets.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

“The market downturn in China showed no signs of easing, and the recovery in the U.S. premium segment remained below our earlier expectations,” said Chief Commercial Officer Erik Severinson.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The North American segment is dominated by activity from the U.S.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

I used the point of my spoon to break off a segment of kabob koobideh.

From "Darius the Great Is Not Okay" by Adib Khorram

Vysotsky said Ukrainians "understand the sensitivity of certain segments for European farmers" and were open to "substantive discussions about adaptation periods, the scale of market access and safeguard mechanisms".

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

A lot of these goods are coming to Indian shores because it is rapidly expanding manufacturing across segments of the economy, but also as "Western markets impose tariffs and other restrictions", says Srivastava.

From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026

That means both fault segments are carrying unusually high and relatively similar levels of stress.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2026

Planned M&A deals and continued issuance from the artificial-intelligence “hyperscalers” are two segments that likely can’t wait too long, he added.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

“What’s this thing that’s on yore mind?” he asked, settling back comfortably against the tree trunk and looking up at small segments of sky that appeared here and there through the canopy of green leaves.

From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt

Reaching Gen Z means shifting toward more segmented channels like Instagram and TikTok, a move the company says it is now making.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

These systems demonstrate what segmented detectors can accomplish, but they also reveal a growing problem.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

The 2025 SDR, external recommended a new "segmented approach" to MoD defence procurement to deliver contracts within two years.

From BBC ● Jun. 11, 2026

Public transit there feels more segmented, so traveling to Oakland can take a long time, and getting to outdoor or hiking destinations isn’t really feasible without a car.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 22, 2026

The birds themselves swooped and cried, weaving in and out of immense, curved ridges that could only be spines, segmented and spurred, and, unmistakably: giant hands, giant feet.

From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor

The rise of Geese reflects Gen Z’s broad interest in music from decades-past, which they have unfettered access to thanks to streaming, and a distaste for segmenting sounds into genres, industry observers say.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 17, 2025

Donets recommends segmenting your customer base as granularly as possible so that you can precisely tailor your messaging and offerings.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 9, 2023

The researchers investigated the drug’s effect on numerous subgroups within their sample population, segmenting it by age, heart or lung condition, gender, smoking status or time since symptom onset.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 31, 2022

Once you get really good at segmenting people or giving them the right recommendations, you have to have a different way to follow up with every single person.

From The Verge ● Feb. 1, 2022

The study of the cleavage pattern of the segmenting egg furnishes the most convincing evidence that a different explanation from the one stated in the biogenetic law is the more probable explanation.

From A Critique of the Theory of Evolution by Thomas Hunt Morgan

Related Words

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