What do you call those divisions of a book bigger than a paragraph but smaller than a chapter?

In printed books, or at least in novels, there are often major breaks within a chapter more important than paragraphs.

Often they are separated by a greater amount of whitespace than paragraphs and sometimes this whitespace will contain special symbols such as ⁂ or * * * or even a custom symbol.

So is there a specific term for these, perhaps used by authors or in the publishing industry? Or are the more general terms like section and subchapter the best we have? Some online sources at least seem to say this is used for subdivisions smaller than a subchapter, which doesn't help much.

Solution 1:

The order of subdivision runs "Part (Subpart) and Section (Subsection)" between paragraph and chapter, as I found.

1. Title (Subtitle)
2. Chapter (Subchapter)
3. Part (Subpart)
4. Section (Subsection)
5. Paragraph (Subparagraph)
6. Clause (Subclause)

Solution 2:

I think you may not like it, but section is the word that works here:

From NOAD:

a relatively distinct part of a book, newspaper, statute, or other document.

That's kind of squishy — I mean, relatively distinct? — but it is the handiest term to use to describe those things.

Subchapter is more often used in legal documents. Example: "A Subchapter S corporation ..."

Solution 3:

I found several references to a scene as a subunit of a chapter that can be separated with *** or left as a normal paragraph break and recognised as a scene change by the reader, given a different location or character perspective. I can't find anything authoritative enough to quote though.