departments

Noun

department (plural departments)

1. A part, portion, or subdivision.
2. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like.
   • Technical things are not his department; he's a people person.

   Synonyms:

   province, specialty

3. A specified aspect or quality.
   • The 2012 Boston Marathon was outstanding in the temperature department; runners endured temperatures of no less than 88 degrees Fahrenheit.
4. (often in proper names) One of the principal divisions of executive government
   • the Treasury Department; the Department of Agriculture; police department

   Synonyms:

   ministry

5. One of the divisions of instructions
   • the physics department; the history department; the math department
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.
   • The departments were the bricks from which the edifice of the nation was to be constructed.2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to the 1715-99, Penguin, published 2003, page 427

See all 8 meanings of department