department Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a specialized division of a large organization
    section.
    • you'll find it in the hardware department
    • she got a job in the historical section of the Treasury
  2. noun the territorial and administrative division of some countries (such as France)
  3. noun a specialized sphere of knowledge
    • baking is not my department
    • his work established a new department of literature

WordNet

De*part"ment noun
Etymology
F. département, fr. départir. See Depart, v. i.
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913