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department

noun

Simple meaning

A specialized division of a large organization.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

dihpahrtmuhnt

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dɪˈpɑɹtmənt

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A specialized division of a large organization

  2. A subdivision of an organization.

  3. often in proper names

    One of the principal divisions of executive government

  4. in a university

    One of the divisions of instructions

  5. A part, portion, or subdivision.

  6. A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts into which the country is divided for governmental purposes, similar to a county in the UK and in the USA. France is composed of 101 départements organized in 18 régions, each department is divided into arrondissements, in turn divided into cantons.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A specialized division of a large organization

Used this way, department is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use department

  • “You'll find it in the hardware department.”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Territorial

state department

Specialized

education department

Principal

treasury department

Other combinations

police departmentdepartment storejustice departmentfire departmenthealth department

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • department of chemistrynounCompound term

    The academic department responsible for teaching and research in chemistry.

  • department of commercenounCompound term

    The United States federal department that promotes and administers domestic and foreign trade (including management of the census and the patent office).

  • department of commerce and labornounCompound term

    A former executive department of the United States government.

  • department of computer sciencenounCompound term

    The academic department responsible for teaching and research in computer science.

  • department of correctionsnounCompound term

    The department of local government that is responsible for managing the treatment of convicted offenders.

  • department of defensenounCompound term

    The federal department responsible for safeguarding national security of the United States.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

  • departmentaladjectiveRelated term

    Of or relating to a department.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.