Adjacent Words

Partial definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

P`ARTIAL, a. [L. pars.]
1. Biased to one party; inclined to favor one party in a cause, or one side of a question, more than the other; not indifferent. It is important to justice that a judge should not be partial.
Self-love will make men partial to themselves and friends.
2. Inclined to favor without reason. Authors are partial to their wit, and critics to their judgment.
3. Affecting a part only; not general or universal; not total. It has been much disputed whether the deluge was partial or total.
All partial evil, universal good.
4. More strongly inclined to one thing than to others. [Colloquial.]
5. In botany, subordinate; applied to subdivisions; as a partial umbel or umbellicle; a partial peduncle. A partial involucre is placed at the foot of a partial umbel.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: being or affecting only a part; not total; "a partial description of the suspect"; "partial collapse"; "a partial eclipse"; "a partial monopoly"; "partial immunity"
2: showing favoritism [ant: impartial]
3: (followed by `of' or `to') having a strong preference or liking for; "fond of chocolate"; "partial to horror movies" [syn: fond, partial] n
1: the derivative of a function of two or more variables with respect to a single variable while the other variables are considered to be constant [syn: partial derivative, partial]
2: a harmonic with a frequency that is a multiple of the fundamental frequency [syn: overtone, partial, partial tone]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English parcial, from Late Latin partialis, from Latin part-, pars part Date: 14th century 1. of or relating to a part rather than the whole ; not general or total <a partial solution> 2. inclined to favor one party more than the other ; biased 3. markedly fond of someone or something — used with to <partial to pizza> II. noun Date: 1880 overtone 1a

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & n. --adj. 1 not complete; forming only part (a partial success). 2 biased, unfair. 3 (foll. by to) having a liking for. --n. Mus. any of the constituents of a musical sound. Phrases and idioms: partial eclipse an eclipse in which only part of the luminary is covered or darkened. partial verdict a verdict finding a person guilty of part of a charge. Derivatives: partially adv. partialness n. Etymology: ME f. OF parcial f. LL partialis (as PART)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Partial Par"tial, a. [F., fr. LL. partials, fr. L. pars, gen. partis, a part; cf. (for sense 1) F. partiel. See Part, n.] 1. Of, pertaining to, or affecting, a part only; not general or universal; not total or entire; as, a partial eclipse of the moon. ``Partial dissolutions of the earth.'' --T. Burnet. 2. Inclined to favor one party in a cause, or one side of a question, more then the other; baised; not indifferent; as, a judge should not be partial. Ye have been partial in the law. --Mal. ii. 9. 3. Having a predelection for; inclined to favor unreasonably; foolishly fond. ``A partial parent.'' --Pope. Not partial to an ostentatious display. --Sir W. Scott. 4. (Bot.) Pertaining to a subordinate portion; as, a compound umbel is made up of a several partial umbels; a leaflet is often supported by a partial petiole. Partial differentials, Partial differential coefficients, Partial differentiation, etc. (of a function of two or more variables), the differentials, differential coefficients, differentiation etc., of the function, upon the hypothesis that some of the variables are for the time constant. Partial fractions (Alg.), fractions whose sum equals a given fraction. Partial tones (Music), the simple tones which in combination form an ordinary tone; the overtones, or harmonics, which, blending with a fundamental tone, cause its special quality of sound, or timbre, or tone color. See, also, Tone.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. You use partial to refer to something that is not complete or whole. ...a partial ban on the use of cars in the city. ...partial blindness. ADJ: usu ADJ n 2. If you are partial to something, you like it. He's partial to sporty women with blue eyes... ADJ: v-link ADJ to n/-ing • partiality He has a great partiality for chocolate biscuits. = fondness N-UNCOUNT: oft N for n 3. Someone who is partial supports a particular person or thing, for example in a competition or dispute, instead of being completely fair. I might be accused of being partial... = biased ? impartial ADJ: v-link ADJ • partiality She is criticized by some others for her one-sidedness and partiality. = bias ? impartiality

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Incomplete, imperfect, limited. 2. Biassed, prejudiced, prepossessed, warped, interested, unfair, unjust, one-sided, influenced. 3. Fond, favorably disposed. 4. Indulgent, fond. 5. (Bot.) Subordinate.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Inclining more to one side than the other, crooked, all o' one hugh.

Moby Thesaurus

AF, adulterated, antiblack, arrested, audio frequency, biased, blemished, callow, chauvinistic, colored, damaged, defective, deficient, denominational, discriminatory, doctrinaire, dogmatic, embryonic, erroneous, factional, failing, fallible, faulty, fond of, found wanting, fractional, fragmentary, frequency, fundamental, fundamental tone, half, halfway, harmonic, hypoplastic, immature, impaired, imperfect, imprecise, impure, in arrear, in arrears, in default, in favor of, in short supply, inaccurate, inadequate, inclined, incomplete, inexact, infant, influenced, interested, intonation, involved, jaundiced, know-nothing, lacking, makeshift, mediocre, missing, mixed, monotone, monotony, needing, nonobjective, not perfect, off, one-and-a-half, one-sided, opinionated, overtone, part, partial to, partial tone, partisan, partly, party, patchy, pitch, predisposed to, prejudiced, prepossessed, racist, scant, scanty, scrappy, sectarian, sectary, sectional, segmental, segmentary, sexist, short, shy, sketchy, superpatriotic, swayed, tendentious, tone, tonelessness, twisted, ultranationalist, underdeveloped, undetached, undeveloped, undispassionate, uneven, unfair, unfinished, unneutral, unperfected, unsound, unthorough, wanting, warped, xenophobic