Search Result for "department": 
Wordnet 3.0

NOUN (3)

1. a specialized division of a large organization;
- Example: "you'll find it in the hardware department"
- Example: "she got a job in the historical section of the Treasury"
[syn: department, section]

2. the territorial and administrative division of some countries (such as France);

3. a specialized sphere of knowledge;
- Example: "baking is not my department"
- Example: "his work established a new department of literature"


The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Department \De*part"ment\, n. [F. d['e]partement, fr. d['e]partir. See Depart, v. i.] 1. Act of departing; departure. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] Sudden departments from one extreme to another. --Wotton. [1913 Webster] 2. A part, portion, or subdivision. [1913 Webster] 3. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like; appointed sphere or walk; province. [1913 Webster] Superior to Pope in Pope's own peculiar department of literature. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] 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 instruction; as, the medical department; the department of physics. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] 6. A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac. [1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

department n 1: a specialized division of a large organization; "you'll find it in the hardware department"; "she got a job in the historical section of the Treasury" [syn: department, section] 2: the territorial and administrative division of some countries (such as France) 3: a specialized sphere of knowledge; "baking is not my department"; "his work established a new department of literature"
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

83 Moby Thesaurus words for "department": airspace, ambit, area, arena, bailiwick, beat, belt, border, borderland, branch, bureau, circle, circuit, commissariat, concern, confines, constablery, constablewick, constabulary, continental shelf, control, corridor, country, demesne, discipline, district, division, domain, dominion, environs, field, ground, heartland, hemisphere, hinterland, judicial circuit, jurisdiction, land, march, milieu, ministry, municipality, neighborhood, office, offshore rights, orb, orbit, pale, part, parts, place, precinct, precincts, premises, province, purlieus, quarter, realm, region, responsibility, round, salient, secretariat, section, segment, sheriffalty, sheriffwick, shrievalty, soil, space, sphere, subdiscipline, subdivision, terrain, territory, three-mile limit, twelve-mile limit, unit, vicinage, vicinity, walk, worry, zone
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

DEPARTMENT. A portion of a country. In France, the country is divided into departments, which are somewhat similar to the counties in this country. The United States have been divided into military departments, including certain portions of the country. 1 Pet. 293. 2. By department is also meant the division of authority, as, the department of state, of the navy, &c.