noun [C] 1 a picture of what the inside of sth would look like if you cut through it 剖面(图);横切面(图): a cross section of the human brain 人脑的横切面图 ☞picture at flower 见flower插图
2 a number of people, etc that come from the different parts of a group, and so can be considered to represent the whole group 典型;代表:
The families we studied were chosen to represent a cross section of society. 我们研究的家庭都是经过挑选的,在社会上具有代表性。 ➔ˌcross-ˈsectional adj