department

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English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From French département.

Pronunciation [edit]

  • (UK) IPA: /dɪˈpɑː(ɹ)tmənt/
  • (file)

Noun [edit]

department (plural departments)

  1. A part, portion, or subdivision.
  2. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province.
  3. Subdivision of business or official duty; especially, one of the principal divisions of executive government; as, the treasury department; the war department; also, in a university, one of the divisions of instructions; as, the medical department; the department of physics.
  4. A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts composed of several arrondissements into which the country is divided for governmental purposes.
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin 2003, p. 427:
      The departments were the bricks from which the edifice of the nation was to be constructed.
  5. A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.
  6. (obsolete) Act of departing; departure.
    • Sudden departments from one extreme to another. Wotton.

Translations [edit]

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Derived terms [edit]

See also [edit]