Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of the main divisions of a relatively lengthy piece of writing, such as a book, that is usually numbered or titled.
  • noun One of the main divisions of a video recording, usually accessible through an onscreen menu.
  • noun A distinct period or sequence of events, as in history or a person's life.
  • noun A local branch of an organization, such as a club or fraternity.
  • noun An assembly of the canons of a church or of the members of a religious residence.
  • noun The canons of a church or the members of a religious residence considered as a group.
  • noun A short scriptural passage read after the psalms in certain church services.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To bring to book; tax with a fault; correct; censure.
  • To arrange or divide into chapters, as a literary composition.
  • noun A division or section, usually numbered, of a book or treatise: as, Genesis contains fifty chapters. Abbreviated c., ch., or chap.
  • noun The council of a bishop, consisting of the canons or prebends and other ecclesiastics attached to a collegiate or cathedral church, and presided over by a dean.
  • noun An assembly of the monks in a monastery, or of those in a province, or of the entire order.
  • noun The place in which the business of the chapter of a cathedral or monastery is conducted; a chapter-house.
  • noun A name given to the meetings of certain organized orders and societies: as, to hold a chapter of the Garter, or of the College of Arms.
  • noun A branch of some society or brotherhood, usually consisting of the members resident in one locality: as, the grand chapter of the royal order of Kilwinning; a chapter of a college fraternity.
  • noun A decretal epistle.
  • noun A place where delinquents receive discipline and correction.
  • noun A series of mishaps; a succession of mischances.
  • noun A division of the acts of Parliament of a single session.
  • noun Head; subject; category: as, to have much to say on some chapters.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To divide into chapters, as a book.
  • transitive verb obsolete To correct; to bring to book, i. e., to demand chapter and verse.
  • noun A division of a book or treatise.
  • noun An assembly of monks, or of the prebends and other clergymen connected with a cathedral, conventual, or collegiate church, or of a diocese, usually presided over by the dean.
  • noun A community of canons or canonesses.
  • noun A bishop's council.
  • noun A business meeting of any religious community.
  • noun An organized branch of some society or fraternity as of the Freemasons.
  • noun A meeting of certain organized societies or orders.
  • noun rare A chapter house.
  • noun A decretal epistle.
  • noun A location or compartment.
  • noun that which stands at the head of a chapter, as a title.
  • noun a house or room where a chapter meets, esp. a cathedral chapter.
  • noun chance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One of the main sections into which the text of a book is divided.
  • noun An administrative division of an organization, usually local to a specific area.
  • noun A sequence (of events), especially when presumed related and likely to continue.
  • verb To divide into chapters.
  • verb To put into a chapter.
  • verb military, with "out" To use administrative procedure to remove someone.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any distinct period in history or in a person's life
  • noun a subdivision of a written work; usually numbered and titled
  • noun an ecclesiastical assembly of the monks in a monastery or even of the canons of a church
  • noun a local branch of some fraternity or association
  • noun a series of related events forming an episode

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English chaptre, variant of chapitre, chapter, chapiter, from Old French, alteration of chapitle, from Latin capitulum, diminutive of caput, head; see kaput- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English chapiter, from Old French chapitre, from Latin capitulum ("a chapter of a book, in Medieval Latin also a synod or council"), diminutive of caput ("a head"); see chapiter and capital, which are doublets of chapter.

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Examples

  • $query3 = "SELECT recnum FROM basicinfo WHERE storyname = '$story_title' AND chapter = '$chapter' AND chapter_id = '$subchapter'";

    DaniWeb IT Discussion Community surfgrommett 2010

  • It is also possible to navigate the message tree using a method on MbsElement (Listing getChild ( "XMLNSC"); $document = $xml - > getChild ( "document"); $chapter = $document - > getChild ( "chapter", 1); $title = $chapter - > getAttribute ( "title");

    LXer Linux News 2009

  • The story is called “The Longest Night” and the title chapter is “Awake”.

    In Darkness » Blog Archive » Storymash: The Longest Night 2009

  • The title chapter of this book is unusual for its tone of prescriptiveness; Mr. Phillips becomes with this book a prophet of originality.

    Adam Phillips' Prescription: Bring Up Brilliant Babies 1998

  • It's not often that a book makes me late for drinks with a friend, but I was in the middle of the title chapter of Anne DeGrace's latest novel

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed Candace Fertile 2011

  • None of them connected for me, not even the title chapter, which features Ayukawa, an up and coming idol, and superstar Mizuhara.

    Manga Maniac Cafe 2009

  • The title chapter "The Brothel Boy" is obviously meant to attract attention and titillate the reader, but it is a very closely reasoned account of a retarded boy in Burma in the 1920's who had been produced and sheltered in a brothel.

    prairiemary 2009

  • The title chapter describes, in hilarious fashion, Crimmins 'sharing the green room at CNN with Henry Kissinger.

    Barry Crimmins : Political Satirist: 2009

  • None of them connected for me, not even the title chapter, which features Ayukawa, an up and coming idol, and superstar Mizuhara.

    Anime Nano! 2009

  • If this chapter is all about him trying to repair their relationship, I want him to really be an ass in this first argument.

    Superhero Nation: how to write superhero novels and comic books » Kynnaston’s Review Forum 2009

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