divide

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English

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Etymology

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PIE word
*dwóh₁

From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan.

Pronunciation

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  • (UK) IPA(key): /dɪˈvaɪd/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪd

Verb

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divide (third-person singular simple present divides, present participle dividing, simple past and past participle divided)

  1. (transitive) To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
    Synonyms: cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up
    Antonyms: combine, merge, unify, unite
    a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns
  2. (transitive) To share (something) by dividing it.
    Synonyms: divvy up, divide up, share, share out, apportion
    How shall we divide this pie?
  3. (transitive) To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
    Words divide us, Wiktionary unites us.
    • 2021 December 15, “Has the Pandemic Torn Your Family Apart?”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-12:
      For nearly two years, the pandemic has been dividing families over issues like social distancing, mask-wearing, and vaccines. Now that the holiday season is here and families are gathering, many issues that have been simmering are reaching a boiling point.
    • 2023 April 29, Will Pavia, “Why butter must come out of the fridge”, in The Times‎[2], London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 April 2023:
      It is a debate that divides Americans as evenly as any of the great political issues of the day. Should they leave their butter on the counter, or must they keep it in the fridge?
  4. (transitive, arithmetic, with by) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
    Antonym: multiply
    If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.
  5. (transitive, arithmetic) To be a divisor of.
    3 divides 6.
  6. (intransitive) To separate into two or more parts.
    Synonyms: separate, shear, split, split up
  7. (intransitive, biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
      [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.
  8. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
  9. (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
  10. (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
  11. To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.
  12. To mark divisions on; to graduate.
    to divide a sextant
  13. (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.

Derived terms

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Terms derived from divide (verb and noun)
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  • (act of dividing): division
  • (the sum being divided; the upper term in a fraction): dividend
  • (the number of parts in a division; the lower term in a fraction): divisor
  • divisive

Translations

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See also

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Noun

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divide (plural divides)

  1. A thing that divides.
    Stay on your side of the divide, please.
  2. An act of dividing.
    The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
    • 1975, Byte, numbers 1-8, page 14:
      The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.
  3. A distancing between two people or things.
    There is a great divide between us.
  4. (geography) A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
    If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
    The team crossed streams and jumped across deep, narrow divides in the glacier.
    • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:
      Carrying light packs they left camp at daylight the next morning. Trails there were none; but they followed the general course of a small creek, crossed a divide, and dipped down into a beautifully timbered valley watered by a swift, large creek of almost riverlike dimensions.
  5. (hydrology) The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

Derived terms

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Translations

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References

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  • “divide”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

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Galician

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Verb

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divide

  1. inflection of dividir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /diˈvi.de/
  • Rhymes: -ide
  • Hyphenation: di‧vì‧de

Verb

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divide

  1. third-person singular present indicative of dividere

Latin

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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dīvide

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of dīvidō

Portuguese

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Pronunciation

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  • Hyphenation: di‧vi‧de

Verb

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divide

  1. inflection of dividir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Romanian

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin dividere.

Verb

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a divide (third-person singular present divide, past participle not used) 3rd conj.

  1. (transitive, reflexive) to divide
    Synonyms: diviza, împărți

Spanish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /diˈbide/ [d̪iˈβ̞i.ð̞e]
  • Rhymes: -ide
  • Syllabification: di‧vi‧de

Verb

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divide

  1. inflection of dividir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative
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