department
UK /dɪˈpɑːtm(ə)nt/ · US /dɪˈpɑɹtmənt/ noun
Forms departments
- noun A part, portion, or subdivision.
- noun A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like. “Technical things are not his department; he's a people person.”
- noun A specified aspect or quality. “The 2012 Boston Marathon was outstanding in the temperature department; runners endured temperatures of no less than 88 degrees Fahrenheit.”
- noun (often in proper names) One of the principal divisions of executive government
- noun (in a university) One of the divisions of instructions
- noun A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts into which the country is divided for governmental purposes, similar to a county in the UK and in the USA. France is composed of 101 départements organized in 18 régions, each department is divided into arrondissements, in turn divided into cantons.
- noun (historical) A military subdivision of a country “the Department of the Potomac”
- noun (obsolete) Act of departing; departure.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English departement (“ceasing, end”), from Middle French département. Later senses borrowed from Modern French département. Doublet of département.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [F. département, fr. départir. See Depart, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “department”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details