division

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
division/dɪˈvɪʒn/

▶noun

• 1 the action or process of dividing or being divided.

  ■ the separation of members of a legislative body into groups to vote for or against a bill.

• 2 each of the parts into which something is divided.

  ■ a major section of an organization.

  ■ a number of teams or competitors grouped together in a sport for competitive purposes.

  ■ Botany a principal taxonomic category that ranks above class and below kingdom, equivalent to the phylum in zoology.

  ■ Zoology any subsidiary category between major levels of classification.

• 3 a difference or disagreement between groups within a society, organization, etc.: a country with ethnic divisions.

• 4 the process of dividing one number by another.

  ■ Mathematics the process of dividing a matrix, vector, or other quantity by another under specific rules to obtain a quotient.

• 5 a partition.

– phrases
division of labour the assignment of different parts of a manufacturing process or task to different people in order to improve efficiency.