department

  1. Noun.  A part, portion, or subdivision.
  2. Noun.  A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province.
  3. Noun.  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.
  4. Noun.  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.
  5. Noun.  A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.
  6. Noun.  (obsolete) Act of departing; departure.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.