English

Etymology

From département.

Pronunciation

• An audio transcript can be found at en-us-department.ogg

Noun

1. A part, portion, or subdivision.
2. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province.
3. :*Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature. Macaulay.
4. 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.
5. A territorial division; a district; esp., in France, one of the districts composed of several arrondissements into which the country is divided for governmental purposes; as, the Department of the Loire.
6. A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.
7. Act of departing; departure.
8. :*Sudden departments from one extreme to another. Wotton.

Translations

• Czech: oddělení
• German: Abteilung (3)
• Hebrew: מחלקה (makhlaqa) (3)
• Spanish: departamento (4), sección (1)

Derived terms

• departmental
• departmentally

See also

• province
• state

de:department fa:department fr:department io:department id:department it:department lo:department hu:department ja:department pl:department simple:department fi:department ta:department te:department vi:department tr:department zh:department