WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : De*part"ment
Part of Speech : n.
Etymology : [F. d?partement, fr. d?partir. See Depart, v. i.]
Definition : 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 instructions; 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.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913