‘a question to which we have only partial answers’
‘The project essentially entailed a partial renewal of the existing line with some shortcut additions.’
‘Quantitative measurement is necessarily, by its very nature, partial and incomplete.’
‘I have a vague sense that dramaturgs may be a partial answer to the director capture problem, but I don't know enough about theatre to say.’
‘A partial answer to the other question is that some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida.’
‘Rummaging around the internet has provided a partial answer.’
‘I suspect that this may be a partial answer, but the major problem is that there is too much fishing available to match anglers these days.’
‘For those of us who were expecting the Iraqi army to put up more resistance to the coalition this may provide a partial answer to why they did not.’
‘One partial answer is a prediction from the years before the Oslo peace process collapsed.’
‘If you want to know why I am so hostile to religion, there are partial answers here and here.’
‘It should be thought of as a partial or incomplete dislocation.’
‘Finding at least partial answers to questions about suffering and death brings satisfaction, if not certainty.’
‘This is a partial answer, satisfactory to explain my own suffering.’
‘I think that a partial answer to your question is that we're in a much more modern secular period here, post-1945.’
‘In such cases, the children sometimes got partial answers or intuited something of their situations on their own.’
‘A partial answer to this is that mere things only present themselves to mere beholding, but mere beholding is only a deficient mode of concern or engagement.’
‘Control of the marriage of a female heiress by the cadet branches of the chiefly house, and the office of tutor or guardian within the clan, were partial answers.’
‘This is a very partial list, restricted to US sins and crimes in the Western Hemisphere.’
‘Buildings partially vacated may also qualify for a partial reduction in payments.’
‘With a few cues, reminders or partial fragments in mind, we can select, interpret, and integrate one thing with another so as to make use of what we learn and remember.’
‘Often premature and unconvincing generalisations are made from rather more limited and partial changes.’
2Favoring one side in a dispute above the other; biased.
‘the paper gave a distorted and very partial view of the situation’
‘It's about separating yourself and your ideas from everyone else's partial biases.’
‘How can those who articulate the green case possibly be comfortable with such a curiously unbalanced mix of myths and beliefs, such a partial view of the world?’
‘I'm not an expert and I can't say for sure, but I think the UN weapons inspectors took a partial view of biological warfare.’
‘Published within one year of the Iraq War, the book offers only a partial view of the international dimension of the crisis.’
‘The difficulty, as ever, is that it inevitably encompasses a very partial and contradictory world view.’
‘He said it was evident in the partial views of legislators in the House of Representatives.’
‘Death doesn't seem to have any favourites; only humans have a partial view.’
‘Total war may describe certain isolated and uncharacteristic aspects of the Civil War but is at most a partial view.’
‘Such a perspective would be as partial as the view that the American Revolution was a fight between natives and aliens.’
‘The original hawk-dove model predicted partial preferences for aggressiveness.’
‘Thus the written history of slavery is inevitably partial and one-sided.’
‘As partial academics they are unable to sponsor, promote or foster academic excellence.’
like, love, enjoy, have a liking for, be fond of, be keen on, have a fondness for, have a weakness for, have a soft spot for, have a taste for, be taken with, care for, have a penchant for, have a predilection for, have a proclivity for, be enamoured of
A component of a musical sound; an overtone or harmonic.
‘the upper partials of the string’
‘At once the problem arises that the human voice is composed of many tones: the fundamental tone and a series of other tones called upper harmonics or partials.’
‘One unusual aspect of this music is that the rich upper partials of the voices bring out the simple harmonies of the hymns in a way not normally heard.’
‘In stringed instruments, additional strings of wire that vibrate in sympathy with a unison note or one of its partials, bowed or plucked on the main strings, adding a shimmer to the sound.’
‘Bass players in these bands often play with picks, which also emphasizes higher partials.’
‘Fortunately, Väisänen salvages the track by piling up shimmering partials over the depths-of-the-ocean drone before the track gently recedes into the distance.’
Origen
Late Middle English (in partial (sense 2 of the adjective)): from Old French parcial (partial (sense 2 of the adjective)), French partiel (partial (sense 1 of the adjective)), from late Latin partialis, from pars, part- ‘part’.
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