department
Pluraldepartments
- 1A division of a large organization, such as a government, business, store, school or university, that deals with a particular subject or area of work.
The store moved its toy department to the top floor to make room for a larger kitchenware section.
Returns and refunds are handled by a different department from sales.
UsageYou work in a department: in the sales department. In official names it is capitalized: the Department of Education.
- 2A particular aspect or quality of someone or something, usually named by the word just before it, as in the looks department.
She has nothing to worry about in the talent department.
The new phone falls short in the battery department.
UsageUsually after in the: great in the speed department, lacking in the humor department.
Similararea
Note
A noun placed in front turns any quality into a category of its own: the temperature department, the Super Bowl wins department. Unlike the "sphere of activity" meaning, it says nothing about whose business something is. It simply picks out the respect in which a thing is being judged.
- 3A territorial division of a country, especially one of the administrative districts into which France is divided, similar to a county in the US or UK.
The department of Var lies along the Mediterranean coast.
Voters in every French department went to the polls on Sunday.
Note
Here English took the word again from Modern French, where département names one of the 101 units through which France is governed. These units are grouped into 18 régions and usually divided into arrondissements and, for electing their councils, into cantons. Colin Jones's The Great Nation (2002) calls them "the bricks from which the edifice of the nation was to be constructed," a reminder that they were laid out as a deliberate scheme.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 7 facts
- The territorial sense was borrowed from Modern French. en.wiktionary.org
- France has 101 départements grouped into 18 régions. insee.fr
- Most departments are divided into arrondissements; Mayotte has none. fr.wikipedia.org
- This describes the usual arrangement, but cantons have been abolished in Martinique and French Guiana, among other exceptions. education.gouv.fr
- Colin Jones wrote The Great Nation, first published in 2002. openlibrary.org
- Jones describes the departments using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
- The departments were laid out as a deliberate scheme. vie-publique.fr
Less common meanings
- 4A distinct course of life, action, or study; a particular sphere of activity.
Marketing was never her department; she preferred the creative side.
Handling complaints is firmly the manager's department.
UsageUsually with a possessive: my department, her department. Not my department says something is outside your responsibility or area of knowledge.
Similarresponsibility, area, domain, sphere, field
Note
Macaulay's essay "Samuel Johnson" uses it in a more dignified key, reporting that Johnson was hailed as superior to Pope "in Pope's own peculiar department of literature."
- 5A military subdivision of a country, used for organizing and commanding armed forces within a region.
The general took charge of the military department covering the frontier.
Troops from the northern department marched south to reinforce the line.
Similarcommand
Note
Command drawn on a map: names like the Department of the Potomac marked out a region under a single military authority, in this case named for a river. Readers now meet the term in histories and period documents rather than in current military usage. In present-day prose it belongs to accounts of the past, and it is capitalized when it forms part of a name.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The Department of the Potomac was a geographical military command. en.wikipedia.org
- The Department of the Potomac was named after a river. en.wikipedia.org
- 6The act of departing; a departure.
Note
The oldest layer of the word: Middle English departement meant "ceasing, end," which is close kin to leaving. Henry Wotton could still use it in The Elements of Architecture (1624). Today departure does this job entirely, and "the department of the train" would read as a mistake. Keep this meaning for quoting older English or deliberately imitating it.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The word descends from Middle English departement, meaning “ceasing, end.” en.wiktionary.org
- Henry Wotton used department in the departure sense in The Elements of Architecture. archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
- The Elements of Architecture was first published in 1624. celm.folger.edu
Practice
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Origin
Middle English departement (meaning "ceasing, end") was taken from Middle French département; the later senses came again from Modern French département, also borrowed as English département, its doublet.