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fragment

/ˈfɹæɡmənt/noun, verb

fragment is a noun meaning “A part broken off; a small, detached portion; an imperfect part, either physically or not” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled F-R-A-G-M-E-N-T and has 2 syllables, and it appears 3.5 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of fragment is fragments.

What does fragment mean?

noun

  1. 1

    A part broken off; a small, detached portion; an imperfect part, either physically or not.

    a fragment of an ancient writing

  2. 2

    A sentence not containing a subject or a predicate; a sentence fragment.

  3. 3

    An incomplete portion of code.

  4. 4

    A portion of a URL referring to a subordinate resource or anchor (such as a specific point on a web page), introduced by the # sign.

    The URL www.example.com/home#recent ends with a fragment.

  5. 5

    A split piece of an organism that has undergone the asexual reproduction process where the organism splits into one or more pieces, then those pieces become new individuals.

verb

  1. 1

    To break apart.

  2. 2

    To cause to be broken into pieces.

  3. 3

    To break up and disperse (a file) into non-contiguous areas of a disk.

  4. 4

    Of an organism: to undergo the asexual reproduction process where an organism spilts into one or more pieces, then those pieces become new individuals.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you pronounce fragment?

  • /ˈfɹæɡmənt/

As a verb (“To break apart”): /fɹæɡˈmɛnt/, /ˈfɹæɡmɛnt/.

Fragment has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fragment.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-fragment2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of fragment

  • fragments plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • fragmenting participle, present
  • fragmented participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How common is fragment?

Fragment appears 3.5 times per million words in written English, the 13,897th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you abbreviate fragment?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of fragment: fr..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Fragment in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfragment (portion or segment of an object), fragmenter (to break apart)
GermanFragment, Bruchstück (portion or segment of an object), fragmentieren (to break apart), Satzfragment (grammar: a sentence)
Portuguesefragmento (portion or segment of an object), fragmentar (to break apart)
Spanishfragmento (portion or segment of an object), fragmentar (to break apart)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does fragment come from?

From Late Middle English fragment, from Latin fragmentum (“a fragment, remnant”), from frangō (“to break”) + -mentum.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).