Adjacent Words

Department definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DEPARTMENT, n.
1. Literally, a separation or division; hence, a separate part, or portion; a division of territory; as the departments of France.
2. A separate allotment or part of business; a distinct province, in which a class of duties are allotted to a particular person; as the department of state, assigned to the secretary of state; the treasury department; the department of war.
3. A separate station; as, the admirals had their respective departments. Nearly in this sense, during war, were used in America, the terms, Northern and Southern departments.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a specialized division of a large organization; "you'll find it in the hardware department"; "she got a job in the historical section of the Treasury" [syn: department, section]
2: the territorial and administrative division of some countries (such as France)
3: a specialized sphere of knowledge; "baking is not my department"; "his work established a new department of literature"

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: French département, from Old French, act of dividing, from departir Date: 1735 1. a. a distinct sphere ; province <that's not my department> b. a category consisting especially of a measurable activity or attribute <lacking in the trustworthiness department — Garrison Keillor> 2. a functional or territorial division: as a. a major administrative division of a government b. a major territorial administrative subdivision c. a division of a college or school giving instruction in a particular subject d. a major division of a business e. a section of a department store handling a particular kind of merchandise f. a territorial subdivision made for the administration and training of military units • departmental adjective • departmentally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a separate part of a complex whole, esp.: a a branch of municipal or State administration (Housing Department; Department of Social Security). b a branch of study and its administration at a university, school, etc. (the physics department). c a specialized section of a large store (hardware department). 2 colloq. an area of special expertise. 3 an administrative district in France and other countries. Phrases and idioms: department store a large shop stocking many varieties of goods in different departments. Etymology: F département (as DEPART)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Department De*part"ment, n. [F. d['e]partement, fr. d['e]partir. See Depart, v. i.] 1. Act of departing; departure. [Obs.] Sudden departments from one extreme to another. --Wotton. 2. A part, portion, or subdivision. 3. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. 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 instruction; 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(departments) Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English. 1. A department is one of the sections in an organization such as a government, business, or university. A department is also one of the sections in a large shop. ...the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare... He moved to the sales department. ...the jewelry department. N-COUNT: usu with supp 2. If you say that a task or area of knowledge is not your department, you mean that you are not responsible for it or do not know much about it. 'I'm afraid the name means nothing to me,' he said. 'That's not my department.' PHRASE: V inflects

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Part, portion, division (especially a territorial division), province. 2. Province, function, office, station, sphere of duty, course of life. 3. Province, branch, division or subdivision (of a subject or notion).

Moby Thesaurus

airspace, ambit, area, arena, bailiwick, beat, belt, border, borderland, branch, bureau, circle, circuit, commissariat, concern, confines, constablery, constablewick, constabulary, continental shelf, control, corridor, country, demesne, discipline, district, division, domain, dominion, environs, field, ground, heartland, hemisphere, hinterland, judicial circuit, jurisdiction, land, march, milieu, ministry, municipality, neighborhood, office, offshore rights, orb, orbit, pale, part, parts, place, precinct, precincts, premises, province, purlieus, quarter, realm, region, responsibility, round, salient, secretariat, section, segment, sheriffalty, sheriffwick, shrievalty, soil, space, sphere, subdiscipline, subdivision, terrain, territory, three-mile limit, twelve-mile limit, unit, vicinage, vicinity, walk, worry, zone