Word
Of
The
Day
tranche
tranche • \TRAHNSH\ •
noun
Tranche refers to a division or portion of a whole.
// A
tranche of leaked documents was delivered to the newspaper anonymously, with more promised to come.
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Examples:
“Congress approved an initial
tranche of funding legislation in November as the longest shutdown in history came to an end.” — Kaia Hubbard,
CBS News, 16 Dec. 2025
Did you know?
In French,
tranche means “slice.” Cutting deeper into the word’s etymology, we find the Old French word
trenchier, meaning “to cut,” which has its likely origin in a Latin word meaning “to cut in three,” from Latin
trini meaning “three each.”
Tranche emerged in the English language in the late 19th century to refer to a division or portion of a larger pool or whole, and later developed a finance-specific meaning referring to an offering for sale of typically a set of bonds “cut” from a larger group of bonds, the tranche being differentiated by such factors as maturity or rate of return.
