A memory management issue where free memory becomes scattered in small, non-contiguous blocks, making it difficult to allocate larger chunks even when total free memory is sufficient.
Heap refers to the dynamic memory area (1960s), named after the data structure. Fragmentation comes from Latin 'fragmentum' meaning broken piece, describing how memory becomes broken into unusable pieces over time.
It's like a parking lot where cars have left randomly, creating many single empty spaces but no room for a bus - you have plenty of total space but can't use it efficiently. This is why your computer sometimes says 'out of memory' when it actually has memory available!
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