noun

• The setting apart or separation of things or people, as a natural process, a manner of organizing people that may be voluntary or enforced by law.
• (biology) The setting apart in Mendelian inheritance of alleles, such that each parent passes only one allele to its offspring.
• (mineralogy) Separation from a mass, and gathering about centers or into cavities at hand through cohesive or adhesive attraction or the crystallizing process.
• (politics, public policy) The separation of people (geographically, residentially, or in businesses, public transit, etc) into racial or other categories (e.g. religion, sex).
• (sociology) The separation of people (geographically, residentially, or in businesses, public transit, etc) into various categories which occurs due to social forces (culture, etc).
• (genetics) The separation of a pair of chromatids or chromosomes during mitosis and meiosis