different between department vs slice

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French département.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??p??tm(?)nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??p??tm?nt/
• Hyphenation: de?part?ment

Noun

department (plural departments)

1. A part, portion, or subdivision.
2. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like.
3. A specified aspect or quality.

   The 2012 Boston Marathon was outstanding in the temperature department; runners endured temperatures of no less than 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. A subdivision of an organization.
   1. (often in proper names) One of the principal divisions of executive government

      the Treasury Department; the Department of Agriculture; police department

   2. (in a university) One of the divisions of instructions

      the physics department; the gender studies department

5. A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts into which the country is divided for governmental purposes, similar to a county in the UK and in the USA. France is composed of 101 départements organized in 18 régions, each department is divided into arrondissements, in turn divided into cantons.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to the 1715-99, Penguin 2003, p. 427:

     The departments were the bricks from which the edifice of the nation was to be constructed.

6. (historical) A military subdivision of a country

7. (obsolete) Act of departing; departure.
   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture

     sudden 'departments from one extreame to another

Synonyms

• (distinct course): province, specialty
• (division of executive government): ministry

Derived terms

• departmental
• departmentally
• Department of Redundancy Department
• department store
• fire department
• interdepartmental
• police department
• state department
• trouser department

Translations

See also

• province
• state

English

Etymology

From Middle English slice, esclice, from Old French esclice, esclis (“a piece split off”), deverbal of esclicer, esclicier (“to splinter, split up”), from Frankish *slitjan (“to split up”), from Proto-Germanic *slitjan?, from Proto-Germanic *sl?tan? (“to split, tear apart”), from Proto-Indo-European *sleyd- (“to rend, injure, crumble”). Akin to Old High German sliz, gisliz (“a tear, rip”), Old High German sl?zan (“to tear”), Old English sl?tan (“to split up”). More at slite, slit.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sla?s/
• Rhymes: -a?s

Noun

slice (plural slices)

1. That which is thin and broad.
2. A thin, broad piece cut off.

   a slice of bacon; a slice of cheese; a slice of bread

3. (colloquial) An amount of anything.
4. A piece of pizza.
   • 2010, Andrea Renzoni, ?Eric Renzoni, Fuhgeddaboudit! (page 22)

     For breakfast, lunch, or dinner, the best Guido meal is a slice and a Coke.

5. (Britain) A snack consisting of pastry with savoury filling.

   I bought a ham and cheese slice at the service station.

6. A broad, thin piece of plaster.
7. A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink.
8. A salver, platter, or tray.
9. A plate of iron with a handle, forming a kind of chisel, or a spadelike implement, variously proportioned, and used for various purposes, as for stripping the planking from a vessel's side, for cutting blubber from a whale, or for stirring a fire of coals; a slice bar; a peel; a fire shovel.
10. One of the wedges by which the cradle and the ship are lifted clear of the building blocks to prepare for launching.
11. (printing) A removable sliding bottom to a galley.
12. (golf) A shot that (for the right-handed player) curves unintentionally to the right. See fade, hook, draw
13. (Australia, New Zealand, Britain) Any of a class of heavy cakes or desserts made in a tray and cut out into squarish slices.
14. (medicine) A section of image taken of an internal organ using MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CT (computed tomography), or various forms of x-ray.
15. (falconry) A hawk's or falcon's dropping which squirts at an angle other than vertical. (See mute.)
16. (programming) A contiguous portion of an array.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

slice (third-person singular simple present slices, present participle slicing, simple past and past participle sliced)

1. (transitive) To cut into slices.

2. (transitive) To cut with an edge utilizing a drawing motion.

3. (transitive) To clear (e.g. a fire, or the grate bars of a furnace) by means of a slice bar.
4. (transitive, badminton) To hit the shuttlecock with the racket at an angle, causing it to move sideways and downwards.
5. (transitive, golf) To hit a shot that slices (travels from left to right for a right-handed player).
6. (transitive, rowing) To angle the blade so that it goes too deeply into the water when starting to take a stroke.
7. (transitive, soccer) To kick the ball so that it goes in an unintended direction, at too great an angle or too high.
8. (transitive, tennis) To hit the ball with a stroke that causes a spin, resulting in the ball swerving or staying low after a bounce.

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

slice (not comparable)

1. (mathematics) Having the properties of a slice knot.

Further reading

• slice on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• -sicle, Celis, ILECs, Leics, Sicel, ceils, ciels, clies, sicle

French

Pronunciation

Verb

slice

1. first-person singular present indicative of slicer
2. third-person singular present indicative of slicer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of slicer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of slicer
5. second-person singular imperative of slicer

Old Irish

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *sleggio, from *sleg, from Proto-Indo-European *slak- (“to hit, strike, throw”). See also Ancient Greek ?????? (lakíz?, “to tear apart”).

Noun

slice m (nominative plural slici)

1. shell

Inflection

Derived terms

• slicén

Descendants

• Irish: slige
• Manx: shlig
• Scottish Gaelic: slige

References