apart

1. 1
   with a gapadverb

   Positioned at a distance from one another, whether in space or in time.

   The villages lie several miles apart along the rocky coast.

   Their two visits fell barely a week apart.

   UsageAfter a measure: three miles apart, a week apart. Written as one word; a part, two words, means a piece.

2. 2
   into piecesadverb

   Into two or more parts, as when something is divided or comes to pieces.

   She took the engine apart to find the source of the rattle.

   The wet cardboard box came apart as soon as he lifted it.

   UsageGoes with verbs: take something apart, come apart, fall apart, pull or tear something apart.

   Similarasunder

   Note

   The same verbs carry it into feeling, as in Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (1980). Asunder and in twain say the same thing. The resulting state, the thing lying in pieces, is the "disassembled" adjective.

3. 3
   leaving asidepostp

   Leaving aside; not taken into account in the matter under discussion.

   Joking apart, the situation is far more serious than it first looks.

   Cost apart, the proposal has genuine merit on its own terms.

   UsageComes after its noun, usually opening the sentence: joking apart, cost apart (like joking aside). Before a noun, say apart from.

   Similaraside

4. 4
   standing outadjective

   Exceptional and distinct, standing out clearly from others of its kind.

   As a craftsman he was a man apart, unmatched by his peers.

   Their defense last season was a class apart.

   UsageGoes after its noun, mostly in a class apart, a man apart or a breed apart.

5. 5
   separatelyadverb

   In a state of separation from one another, not together.

   The two teams kept their work apart so neither would copy the other.

   The twins were raised apart and did not meet until they were thirty.

   UsageCommon with verbs: live apart, drift apart, keep things apart. Add from to name the other: apart from her family.

   Similarseparately

   Oppositetogether

   Note

   Here the focus is on being separate rather than together, not on the measured gap between things. People who live apart keep separate homes; to consider two propositions apart is to weigh each independently, without letting one color the other. Separately can usually stand in for it. The test helps but does not settle it, since separately can also fit the sense of physical distance.

6. 6
   private (place)adjective

   Of a person or thing: separate from the rest of a group, keeping or kept away from the others instead of being among them.

   The monks took their meals in a refectory apart, away from the noise of the guests.

   For years she kept her poetry a thing apart, never mentioning it to colleagues or even close friends.

   UsageUsually after its noun: a place apart, a world apart, a thing apart.

   Similarseparate, secluded

   Note

   Usually it follows its noun, but it could also stand in front. Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Lady Anne Granard has a young lover waiting for a quiet moment to deliver "an apart whisper," meaning one spoken on the side, away from the others.

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