Area vs. Section — What's the Difference?
Edited by Tayyaba Rehman — By Fiza Rafique — Updated on March 12, 2024
Area refers to a distinct measurable space or surface, used in a general or mathematical context, while section denotes a specific, often segmented part of a whole in various fields.
Difference Between Area and Section
Table of Contents
ADVERTISEMENT
Key Differences
Area is a term widely used to describe the extent of a two-dimensional space, measured in units such as square meters or square feet. It's commonly applied in contexts ranging from real estate to geometry. On the other hand, section refers to a distinct part or subdivision of something, which could be a document, a piece of land, or an object, highlighting the idea of partitioning rather than overall size.
While area is often associated with quantitative measurements, providing a mathematical assessment of space, section is used to denote qualitative distinctions, focusing on the characteristics or contents of the part of a whole. This difference underlines the quantitative versus qualitative nature of area versus section.
In geometry, the area is a fundamental concept used to calculate the size of surfaces, essential in both theoretical and applied mathematics. Conversely, section can refer to a cross-section in geometry or physics, offering a view or analysis of an object's internal structure, indicating the diversity in application.
In legal and real estate contexts, area is crucial for determining property sizes, zoning, and planning. Meanwhile, section can refer to specific parts of legal documents or segments of land within larger plots, emphasizing specificity within broader contexts.
Despite their differences, both terms are essential for detailed analysis and description in various professional and academic fields. Area provides a basis for understanding the extent of spaces, whereas section aids in the detailed examination of parts within a whole, showcasing their complementary roles.
ADVERTISEMENT
Comparison Chart
Definition
Measure of a two-dimensional space or surface.
A specific, often segmented part of a whole.
Context
Mathematics, real estate, geography.
Documents, architecture, parts of objects, legal descriptions.
Quantitative vs. Qualitative
Quantitative, focusing on size.
Qualitative, focusing on distinguishing characteristics.
Application
Calculating space in real estate, geometry.
Dividing documents, land, or objects into parts.
Example
Calculating the area of a land plot.
Referring to a specific section of a legal document.
Compare with Definitions
Area
In mathematics, the number representing the space enclosed by a shape.
The area of a circle is πr².
Section
A distinct part of a document or publication.
See the reference in section 4.2.
Area
A region or part of a town, country, or the world.
The storm affected a large area of the coast.
Section
A separate part of a structure or object.
The damaged section of the bridge will be repaired.
Area
A field of study or interest.
Her area of expertise is medieval literature.
Section
An operation in surgery where a cut is made.
The biopsy required a small section of tissue.
Area
A measure of surface within a boundary.
The area of a square is calculated as side squared.
Section
A division of a legal or legislative document.
Section 3 deals with property rights.
Area
The extent or scope of a subject or activity.
The study covers a wide area of history.
Section
A group within a larger community or organization.
The choir's soprano section rehearsed separately.
Area
Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional region, shape, or planar lamina, in the plane. Surface area is its analog on the two-dimensional surface of a three-dimensional object.
Section
One of several components; a piece.
Area
A roughly bounded part of the space on a surface; a region:a farming area; the New York area.
Section
A subdivision of a written work.
Area
A surface, especially an open, unoccupied piece of ground:a landing area; a playing area.
Section
(Law) A distinct portion or provision of a legal code or set of laws, often establishing a particular legal requirement
Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
Area
A distinct part or section, as of a building, set aside for a specific function:a storage area in the basement.
Section
A distinct portion of a newspaper
The sports section.
Area
A division of experience, activity, or knowledge; a field:studies in the area of finance; a job in the health-care area.
Section
A distinct area of a town, county, or country
A residential section.
Area
An open, sunken space next to a building; an areaway.
Section
A land unit equal to one square mile (2.59 square kilometers), 640 acres, or 1/36 of a township.
Area
Abbr. AThe extent of a planar region or of the surface of a solid measured in square units.
Section
The act or process of separating or cutting, especially the surgical cutting or dividing of tissue.
Area
(mathematics) A measure of the extent of a surface; it is measured in square units.
Section
A thin slice, as of tissue, suitable for microscopic examination.
Area
A particular geographic region.
Section
A segment of a fruit, especially a citrus fruit.
Area
Any particular extent of surface, especially an empty or unused extent.
The photo is a little dark in that area.
Section
Representation of a solid object as it would appear if cut by an intersecting plane, so that the internal structure is displayed.
Area
The extent, scope, or range of an object or concept.
The plans are a bit vague in that area.
Section
(Music) A group of instruments or voices in the same class considered as a division of a band, orchestra, or choir
The rhythm section.
The woodwind section.
Area
(British) An open space, below ground level, giving access to the basement of a house, and typically separated from the pavement by railings.
Section
A class or discussion group of students taking the same course
She taught three sections of English composition.
Area
(soccer) Penalty box; penalty area.
Section
A portion of railroad track maintained by a single crew.
Area
(slang) Genitals.
Section
An area in a train's sleeping car containing an upper and lower berth.
Area
Any plane surface, as of the floor of a room or church, or of the ground within an inclosure; an open space in a building.
The Alban lake . . . looks like the area of some vast amphitheater.
Section
An army tactical unit smaller than a platoon and larger than a squad.
Area
The inclosed space on which a building stands.
Section
A unit of vessels or aircraft within a division of armed forces.
Area
The sunken space or court, giving ingress and affording light to the basement of a building.
Section
One of two or more vehicles, such as a bus or train, given the same route and schedule, often used to carry extra passengers.
Area
An extent of surface; a tract of the earth's surface; a region; as, vast uncultivated areas.
Section
The character (§) used in printing to mark the beginning of a section.
Area
The superficial contents of any figure; the surface included within any given lines; superficial extent; as, the area of a square or a triangle.
Section
This character used as the fourth in a series of reference marks for footnotes.
Area
A spot or small marked space; as, the germinative area.
Section
(Informal) A cesarean section.
Area
Extent; scope; range; as, a wide area of thought.
The largest area of human history and man's common nature.
Section
To separate or divide into parts.
Area
A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography);
It was a mountainous area
Bible country
Section
To cut or divide (tissue) surgically.
Area
A particular environment or walk of life;
His social sphere is limited
It was a closed area of employment
He's out of my orbit
Section
To shade or crosshatch (part of a drawing) to indicate sections.
Area
A subject of study;
It was his area of specialization
Areas of interest include...
Section
(Informal) To perform a cesarean section on.
Area
A part of a structure having some specific characteristic or function;
The spacious cooking area provided plenty of room for servants
Section
A cutting; a part cut out from the rest of something.
Area
A part of an animal that has a special function or is supplied by a given artery or nerve;
In the abdominal region
Section
A part, piece, subdivision of anything.
Area
The extent of a 2-dimensional surface enclosed within a boundary;
The area of a rectangle
It was about 500 square feet in area
Section
(music) A group of instruments in an orchestra.
The horn section is the group of symphonic musicians who play the French horn.
Section
A part of a document.
Section
An act or instance of cutting.
Section
A cross-section (image that shows an object as if cut along a plane).
Section
(aviation) A cross-section perpendicular the longitudinal axis of an aircraft in flight.
Section
(surgery) An incision or the act of making an incision.
Section
(sciences) A thin slice of material prepared as a specimen for research.
Section
(botany) A taxonomic rank below the genus (and subgenus if present), but above the species.
Section
(zoology) An informal taxonomic rank below the order ranks and above the family ranks.
Section
(military) A group of 10-15 soldiers led by a non-commissioned officer and forming part of a platoon.
Section
(category theory) A right inverse.
Section
(NZ) A piece of residential land; a plot.
Section
(Canadian) A one-mile square area of land, defined by a government survey.
Section
Any of the squares, each containing 640 acres, into which the public lands of the United States were divided.
Section
The symbol §, denoting a section of a document.
Section
(geology) A sequence of rock layers.
Section
A class in a school; a group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting with a teacher in a certain school year or semester or school quarter year.
Section
To cut, divide or separate into pieces.
Section
To reduce to the degree of thinness required for study with the microscope.
Section
(UK) To commit (a person, to a hospital, with or without their consent), as for mental health reasons. So called after various sections of legal acts regarding mental health.
Section
To perform a cesarean section on (someone).
Section
The act of cutting, or separation by cutting; as, the section of bodies.
Section
A part separated from something; a division; a portion; a slice.
Section
A distinct part or portion of a book or writing; a subdivision of a chapter; the division of a law or other writing; a paragraph; an article; hence, the character often used to denote such a division.
It is hardly possible to give a distinct view of his several arguments in distinct sections.
Section
The figure made up of all the points common to a superficies and a solid which meet, or to two superficies which meet, or to two lines which meet. In the first case the section is a superficies, in the second a line, and in the third a point.
Section
A distinct part of a country or people, community, class, or the like; a part of a territory separated by geographical lines, or of a people considered as distinct.
The extreme section of one class consists of bigoted dotards, the extreme section of the other consists of shallow and reckless empirics.
Section
A division of a genus; a group of species separated by some distinction from others of the same genus; - often indicated by the sign .
Section
One of the portions, of one square mile each, into which the public lands of the United States are divided; one thirty-sixth part of a township. These sections are subdivided into quarter sections for sale under the homestead and preëmption laws.
Section
A part of a musical period, composed of one or more phrases. See Phrase.
Section
The description or representation of anything as it would appear if cut through by any intersecting plane; depiction of what is beyond a plane passing through, or supposed to pass through, an object, as a building, a machine, a succession of strata; profile.
Section
A self-contained part of a larger composition (written or musical);
He always turns first to the business section
The history of this work is discussed in the next section
Section
A very thin slice (of tissue or mineral or other substance) for examination under a microscope;
Sections from the left ventricle showed diseased tissue
Section
A distinct region or subdivision of a territorial or political area or community or group of people;
No section of the nation is more ardent than the South
There are three synagogues in the Jewish section
Section
One of several parts or pieces that fit with others to constitute a whole object;
A section of a fishing rod
Metal sections were used below ground
Finished the final segment of the road
Section
A small team of policemen working as part of a police platoon
Section
One of the portions into which something is regarded as divided and which together constitute a whole;
The written part of the exam
The finance section of the company
The BBC's engineering division
Section
A land unit of 1 square mile measuring 1 mile on a side
Section
(geometry) the area created by a plane cutting through a solid
Section
A division of an orchestra containing all instruments of the same class
Section
A small army unit usually having a special function
Section
A specialized division of a large organization;
You'll find it in the hardware department
She got a job in the historical section of the Treasury
Section
A segment of a citrus fruit;
He ate a section of the orange
Section
The cutting of or into body tissues or organs (especially by a surgeon as part of an operation)
Section
Divide into segments;
Segment an orange
Segment a compound word
Common Curiosities
Can a section refer to a physical space?
Yes, a section can refer to a specific part of a physical space, like a section of a building or land.
Is area only used in mathematics?
While area is a fundamental concept in mathematics, it's also used in contexts like real estate and geography to describe space.
What is an area?
Area is the measure of a two-dimensional space within a set of boundaries, often calculated in square units.
What does section mean?
Section refers to a distinct part of something that is often segmented from the whole, such as a document or an object.
How is area measured?
Area is measured in units such as square meters (m²) or square feet (ft²), depending on the context.
How does section differ in legal documents?
In legal documents, a section refers to a specific division that deals with a particular aspect of the document.
Why is dividing something into sections useful?
Dividing into sections helps in organizing information or parts of an object for easier understanding or management.
How does the concept of section apply in surgery?
In surgery, a section refers to the act of cutting or the area that has been cut as part of a surgical procedure.
Can area and section be used interchangeably?
No, because area typically refers to the size of a space, while section points to a specific part of a whole.
Can the concept of area apply to three-dimensional spaces?
No, area specifically refers to two-dimensional spaces, while volume measures three-dimensional spaces.
Are there specific formulas for calculating area?
Yes, there are specific formulas for calculating the area of various shapes, such as squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles.
How do you determine the area of an irregular shape?
The area of an irregular shape can be calculated using various methods, such as approximation, integration, or using geometric formulas where applicable.
What is the importance of measuring area?
Measuring area is crucial for tasks such as land assessment, construction planning, and space management.
What makes a section important in writing?
Sections organize content into manageable parts, making it easier for readers to follow arguments or narratives.
Can both terms be applied in the field of architecture?
Yes, in architecture, area refers to the size of spaces, while section can denote specific parts of a construction plan or a cross-sectional view.
Share Your Discovery
Previous Comparison
Doxology vs. Benediction
Next Comparison
Evade vs. AvoidAuthor Spotlight
Written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
Edited by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
