fragmentation

[ frag-muh n-tey-shuh n ]
/ ˌfræg mənˈteɪ ʃən /

noun

the act or process of fragmenting; state of being fragmented.
the disintegration, collapse, or breakdown of norms of thought, behavior, or social relationship.
the pieces of an exploded fragmentation bomb or grenade.
Computers. the process, or result, of storing a file in non-contiguous sectors on a disk. As files are created, modified, deleted, etc., both the allocation of the files and the remaining free space on the disk become fragmented, slowing down data access speed on the disk.

Origin of fragmentation

First recorded in 1880–85; fragment + -ation

Example sentences from the Web for fragmentation

British Dictionary definitions for fragmentation

fragmentation
/ (ˌfræɡmɛnˈteɪʃən) /

noun

the act of fragmenting or the state of being fragmented
the disintegration of norms regulating behaviour, thought, and social relationships
the steel particles of an exploded projectile
(modifier) of or relating to a weapon designed to explode into many small pieces, esp as an antipersonnel weapon a fragmentation bomb

Scientific definitions for fragmentation

fragmentation
[ frăg′mən-tāshən ]

The scattering of parts of a computer file across different regions of a disk. Fragmentation occurs when the operating system breaks up the file and stores it in locations left vacant by previously deleted files. The more fragmented the file, the slower it is to retrieve, since each piece of the file must be identified and located on the disk.