👋 A farewell 💇 A hair line

parting

3 3.8

A line on the head where hair is separated and combed in different directions

noun
/ˈpɑrtɪŋ/

: raya

She styled her hair with a deep parting down the middle to create a dramatic look.
parting in her hair
parting line

And in all my photos, I just have all these hairs in my parting.

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Examples

I had never seen her parting crooked, nor a single hair out of place.

Fiction book (1993)
Afterwards, we moved the parting to the left side so my hair covers the scar.

Crossroads (1942)
A center parting is very European looking.

It's a Boy Girl Thing (2006)
I was having a really weird dream about a mouse with a side parting in his hair.

Brilliantlove (2010)
It's like a middle parting down to here, shaved underneath, and an undercut.

The Inland Road (2017)
He prefers a side parting in his hair to give it a more polished appearance.
The actress had a stylish parting that highlighted her facial features beautifully.

Synonyms

part

vsparting

58 2.3

A line on the head where the hair is divided

is the longer morphological form formed by adding a suffix

Compounds

parting shot

Informal

4 7.4

A final sharp remark you say as you leave to hurt or surprise someone

parting of the ways

2 6.1

A time when people or groups separate and go different ways

water parting

Specialized

7.3

A high line of land that sends rainwater to different rivers

Surface Forms

parting singular

partings plural

Morphology

parting = part (semi-transparent) = part + ing

The noun is built from part + -ing and refers to the line created when hair is parted, but the sense is somewhat lexicalized and not fully predictable for all learners.

Etymology

Parting comes from the verb part, which means 'to divide' or 'separate'. A hair parting is simply the line where the hair is divided, so the origin shows why it names that split in the hair.