divide

UK/dɪˈvaɪd/

divide verb: to split or separate (something) into two or more parts.

Verb

divide (third-person singular simple present divides, present participle dividing, simple past and past participle divided)

(transitive) To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
- a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns
- Divide the living child in two.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 3:25
Synonyms:

cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up

Antonyms:

combine, merge, unify, unite
(intransitive) To separate into two or more parts.

Synonyms:

separate, shear, split, split up
(transitive) To share (something) by dividing it.
- How shall we divide this pie?
- true justice unto people to divide1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1
Synonyms:

divvy up, divide up, share, share out, apportion
(transitive) To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
- Words divide us; Wiktionary unites us.
- For nearly two years, the pandemic has been dividing families over issues like social distancing, mask-wearing, and vaccines. Now that the holiday season is here and families are gathering, many issues that have been simmering are reaching a boiling point.2021 December 15, “Has the Pandemic Torn Your Family Apart?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2022
(transitive) To calculate the quotient number by which another one (the divisor) is multiplied to produce a second number (the dividend).
- If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.
- I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations.2022 August 7, Alec Wilkinson, “Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023
Antonyms:

multiply
(transitive) To be a divisor of.
- 3 divides 6.
(intransitive) To reproduce by either mitosis or meiosis.
- [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were...2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845
(intransitive) To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
- If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 3:24
- Every family became now divided within itself.1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B....
(intransitive, obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
- love cools, friendship / falls off, brothers divide.1605, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear, I. ii. 107
(obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
- Make good this ostentation, and you shall / Divide in all with us.1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, I. vi. 87
(intransitive, parliamentary jargon) To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the nays.
- The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided with their equals.1776, Edward Gibbon, “Chapter III: The Constitution In The Age Of The Antonines.—Part I.”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and...
(transitive) To split (something) into regular steps or intervals; to mark with degrees; to graduate.
- to divide a sextant
To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
- About the bed sweet musicke did divide1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

Noun

divide (plural divides)

A thing that divides.
- Stay on your side of the divide, please.
An act of dividing.
- The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
- The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.1975, Byte, numbers 1-8, page 14
A distancing between two people or things.
- There is a great divide between us.
- Republicans and Democrats interpret individualism differently, and those divides are more pronounced than ever in our deeply polarized political climate.2020 May 19, Scottie Andrew, “America’s response to the coronavirus is the most American thing ever”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Jul 2020
A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
- If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
- The team crossed streams and jumped across deep, narrow divides in the glacier.
The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

divide meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

divide in Hindi

split into two or more parts: बांटना bāṇṭnā

divide in Tamil

பிளவு, வகு, பிரிவுறு

divide in Urdu

بانٹنا, حصہ کرنا, کاٹنا, تقسیم کرنا

divide in Bengali

ভাগ, বণ্টন, বিভাজন, বিভক্ত অবস্থা, বিভক্ত করা, বাঁটা

More languagesFewer languages

divide in Telugu: విభజించు vibhajiñcu, పంచుకొను pañcukonu, భాగించు bhāgiñcu
divide in Malayalam: വിഭജിക്കുക vibhajikkuka, വകയുക vakayuka, പകുക്കുക pakukkuka, വീതിക്കുക vītikkuka
divide in Kannada: ವಿಂಗಡಿಸು viṅgaḍisu
divide in Punjabi: وَنْڈݨا vanḍṇā
divide in Odia: ଭାଗ କରିବା bhāga karibā, ଖଣ୍ଡିବା khaṇḍibā, ଫାଡ଼ିବା phāṛibā
divide in Sanskrit: भजति bhajati
divide in Sinhala: බෙදනවා bedanawā
divide in Assamese: ভগোৱা bhogüa
divide in Nepali: बाँड्नु bā̃ḍnu
divide in Tagalog: hatiin, maghati
divide in Arabic: قَسَّمَ qassama
divide in Malay: bahagian
divide in Persian: قسمیدن, جداییدن, سواییدن, بخشیدن
divide in Thai: หาร hǎan
divide in Vietnamese: chia

Examples of divide in a sentence

Six and forty-two are comparable in the divides order, but six and nine are not.
If you divide 20 apples between three people, each gets six and two remain.
We installed a dividing wall in order to create two rooms out of one.

All 40 example sentences with divide

Synonyms of divide

15 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of divide

Forms of divide

Verb
third-person singular present	divides
present participle	dividing
past participle	divided
past	divided
second-person singular present (archaic)	dividest
second-person singular past (archaic)	dividedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	divideth
Noun
plural	divides

Past tense of divide: divided

Plural of divide: divides

Origin of divide

PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan related to English deal which formerly meant a “portion” or “part” of something.

Phrases with divide

Laurentian Divide

Words that rhyme with divide

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about divide

What does divide mean?: Divide means to split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
What is divide in Hindi?: Divide in Hindi is बांटना (bāṇṭnā). See Divide meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is divide?: Divide can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce divide?: Divide is pronounced /dɪˈvaɪd/ (UK).
What is the past tense of divide?: The past tense of divide is divided.

Words near divide in the dictionary

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-divide.ogg.

Cite this entry: “divide.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/divide. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.