Memory segmentation is an operating system memory management technique of division of a computer's primary memory into segments or sections. In a computer system using segmentation, a reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset (memory location) within that segment. Segments or sections are also used in object files of compiled programs when they are linked together into a program image and when the image is loaded into memory.

Segments usually correspond to natural divisions of a program such as individual routines or data tables so segmentation is generally more visible to the programmer than paging alone. Segments may be created for program modules, or for classes of memory usage such as code and data segments. Certain segments may be shared between programs.

Segmentation was originally invented as a method by which system software could isolate software processes (tasks) and data they are using. It was intended to increase reliability of the systems running multiple processes simultaneously. In a x86-64 architecture it is considered legacy and most x86-64-based modern system software don't use memory segmentation. Instead they handle programs and their data by utilizing memory-paging which also serves as a way of memory protection. However most x86-64 implementations still support it for backward compatibility reasons.