Qκλ. Pκλ the space of all < κ-sized subsets of λ, has provided numerous opportunities for the gainful employment of set theorists in recent years, thanks to its combinatorial richness and to its relationships with various large cardinals. In the spirit of Pκλ we offer the following definition:

For κ ≤ λ both cardinals, Qκλ is the set of all partitions of λ into < κ-many pieces (an element of q ∈ Qκλ is called a piece of q). Equivalently

An element of Pκλ may be viewed as an injection from a < κ-sized set into λ, with some information thrown away. An element of Qκλ is a surjection from λ onto a < κ-sized set, with analogous loss of information.

For p, q ∈ Qκλ, we say p ≤ q iff q is a refinement of p (every piece of q is contained in a piece of p).