fragmentation

1. Computing: Storage of the different parts of a file in non-contiguous areas of a disk, thus requiring more disk-access time to read and write data to the file. Cured by disk defragmentation programs which re-store the data in contiguous areas.

2. Economy: Market situation without any dominant group of buyers or sellers, where many buyers are chased by many suppliers and vice versa. Such situations lead to market upheavals (shakeouts) resulting in demise of the inefficient or smaller ones and emergence of a few dominant ones.