partial

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/ˈpɑːrʃəl/US:USA pronunciation: IPA and respellingUSA pronunciation: IPA/ˈpɑrʃəl/ ,USA pronunciation: respelling(pärshəl)


WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
par•tial /ˈpɑrʃəl/USA pronunciation   adj. 
  1. being in part only; incomplete:partial payment.
  2. biased or prejudiced in favor of one person, etc., over another:The judge was partial.
  3. See impartial.
Idioms
  1. Idioms partial to, [ be + ~] favoring;
    especially fond of:is partial to vanilla ice cream.

par•ti•al•i•ty /pɑrʃiˈælɪti/USA pronunciation  n. [uncountable]showed partiality in hiring his friend's son for the position.
par•tial•ly, adv.: The sun was partially blocked by the clouds.See -par-.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
par•tial  (pärshəl),USA pronunciation adj. 
  1. being such in part only;
    not total or general;
    incomplete:partial blindness; a partial payment of a debt.
  2. biased or prejudiced in favor of a person, group, side, etc., over another, as in a controversy:a partial witness.
  3. pertaining to or affecting a part.
  4. being a part;
    component;
    constituent.
  5. Botanysecondary or subordinate:a partial umbel.
  6. Idioms partial to, having a liking or preference for;
    particularly fond of:I'm partial to chocolate cake.

n. 
  1. Games[Bridge.]part-score.
  2. Music and Dance[Acoustics, Music.]See partial tone. 
  • Late Latin partiālis pertaining to a part, equivalent. to Latin parti- (stem of pars) part + -ālis -al1
  • Middle French
  • late Middle English parcial biased, particular 1375–1425
partial•ly, adv. 
partial•ness, n. 
    1. unfinished, imperfect, limited. 2. one-sided, unfair, unjust.
    1. 3. complete. 2. unbiased, fair.

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
partial /ˈpɑːʃəl/ adj
  1. relating to only a part; not general or complete: a partial explanation
  2. biased: a partial judge
  3. (postpositive) followed by to: having a particular liking (for)
  4. designating or relating to an operation in which only one of a set of independent variables is considered at a time
n
  1. Also called: partial tone any of the component tones of a single musical sound, including both those that belong to the harmonic series of the sound and those that do not
  2. a partial derivative
Etymology: 15th Century: from Old French parcial, from Late Latin partiālis incomplete, from Latin pars partˈpartially adv ˈpartialness n USAGE
Partially and partly are to some extent interchangeable, but partly should be used when referring to a part or parts of something: the building is partly (not partially) of stone, while partially is preferred for the meaning to some extent: his mother is partially (not partly) sighted
'partial' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
Collocations: partial memory loss, suffers from partial blindness, partial loss of [sight, touch, memory], more...

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