Definition of "fragmentation" [fragmentation]

• The act or process of breaking into fragments. (noun)
• The scattering of the fragments of an exploding bomb or other projectile. (noun)
• Computer Science The scattering of parts of a file throughout a disk, as when the operating system breaks up the file and fits it into the spaces left vacant by previously deleted files. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The use of the term fragmentation to describe Google's Android operating system has no merit because people can't agree what the term means, according to an Android developer."
• "This seems to me, however, a consequence of the fact that Aue's "narrative consciousness" inherently veersfrom "confessional" to "argumentative," etc., not that this fragmentation is a flaw in the use of point of view."
• "Here is what the BBC's Middle East Editor has to say about what he calls the fragmentation of Palestinian society:"