divorce
/dɪˈvɔːs/US/dɪˈvoɹs/
divorce noun: the legal dissolution of a marriage.
Noun
divorce (countable and uncountable, plural divorces)
- The legal dissolution of a marriage.
- Richard obtained a divorce from his wife some years ago, but hasn't returned to the dating scene.
- Kate Merrill: Do you ever regret it, Liz?
Liz Frances: The divorce? Not as much as I regret the marriage.1999 February 3, Anthony Horowitz et al., “Strangler's Wood”, in Midsomer Murders
- Synonyms:
- divorcement
- A separation of connected things.
- The Civil War split between Virginia and West Virginia was a divorce based along cultural and economic as well as geographic lines.
- The great trick of online retail has been to get us to do more shopping while thinking less about it – thinking less, in particular, about how our purchases reach our homes. This divorce of a product from its voyage to us is perhaps the thing that Amazon has sold us most successfully2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- partition, separation, severance
- The separation of a bonded pair of animals.
- That which separates.
- Go with me like good angels to my end; / And as the long divorce of steel falls on me, / Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice, / And lift my soul to heaven. Lead on, o' God's name.c. 1613, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Henry VIII, act 2, scene 1
Verb
divorce (third-person singular simple present divorces, present participle divorcing, simple past and past participle divorced)
- To legally dissolve a marriage between two people.
- A ship captain can marry couples, but cannot divorce them.
- As Fire Island’s reputation grew, so did the fame of its residents. In 1977, after divorcing his first wife, Calvin Klein bought one of Gifford’s beachfront homes.2025 June 11, Oliver Wainwright, “‘Made for sex’: the hedonistic party palaces of New York’s Fire Island – and the blond bombshell who made them”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original...
- Synonyms:
- split up
- To end one's own marriage to (a person) in this way.
- Lucy divorced Steve when she discovered that he had been unfaithful.
- To obtain a legal divorce.
- Edna and Simon divorced last year; he got the house, and she retained the business.
- To separate something that was connected.
- The radical group voted to divorce itself from the main faction and start an independent movement.
- He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word...c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Synonyms:
- disassociate, disjoint, dissociate, disunite, separate
Proper noun capitalized: Divorce
Divorce
divorce meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
divorce in Hindi
- legal dissolution of a marriage
- तलाक़ talāq, तलाक talāk, त्याग tyāg, स्त्रीपुरुषविच्छेद strīpuruṣvicched, विवाहविच्छेद vivāhvicched, विच्छेदन vicchedan
- legally dissolve a marriage
- तलाक़ देना talāq denā, तलाक देना talāk denā
- end one's own marriage
- तलाक़ देना talāq denā, तलाक देना talāk denā
divorce in Tamil
- legal dissolution of a marriage
- மணவிலக்கு maṇavilakku, விவாகரத்து vivākarattu, திருமண முறிவு tirumaṇa muṟivu, மணமுறிவு maṇamuṟivu
- separation of connected things
- முறிவு muṟivu
- end one's own marriage
- விவாகரத்து செய் vivākarattu cey, மணவிலக்கு செய் maṇavilakku cey
- obtain a legal divorce
- விவாகரத்து வாங்கு vivākarattu vāṅku, மணவிலக்கு வாங்கு maṇavilakku vāṅku
divorce in Marathi
- legal dissolution of a marriage
- घटस्फोट ghaṭasphoṭ, काडीमोड kāḍīmoḍ, वेगळे होणे vegḷe hoṇe
divorce in Urdu
- legal dissolution of a marriage
- طَلاق talāq
- legally dissolve a marriage
- طلاق دینا talāq denā
- end one's own marriage
- طَلاق دینا talāq denā
More languagesFewer languages
- divorce in Bengali
- বিবাহবিচ্ছেদ bibahobicched
- divorce in Telugu
- విడాకులు viḍākulu
- divorce in Malayalam
- വിവാഹമോചനം vivāhamōcanaṁ
- divorce in Kannada
- ವಿಚ್ಛೇದನ vicchēdana
- divorce in Punjabi
- ਤਲਾਕ਼ talāq
- divorce in Gujarati
- તલાક talāk, છૂટાછેડા chūṭācheḍā, ડિવોર્સ ḍivors
- divorce in Odia
- ଛାଡ଼ପତ୍ର chāṛapatra, ବିବାହ ବିଚ୍ଛେଦ bibāha biccheda
- divorce in Sanskrit
- विच्छेदन vicchedana, त्याग tyāga, स्त्रीपुरुषविच्छेद strīpuruṣaviccheda, विवाहविच्छेद vivāhaviccheda
- divorce in Sinhala
- දික්කසාදය dikkasādaya
- divorce in Assamese
- বিবাহ বিচ্ছেদ bibah bissed
- divorce in Nepali
- सम्बन्धविच्छेद, विवाह विच्छेद, सम्बन्धविच्छेद गर्ने
- divorce in Pashto
- پرېژه preža, طلاق talāq
- divorce in Tagalog
- diborsiyo
- divorce in Arabic
- طَلَاق ṭalāq, تَطْلِيق taṭlīq, خُلْع ḵulʕ, طَلَّقَ ṭallaqa
- divorce in Malay
- perceraian
- divorce in Indonesian
- perceraian
- divorce in Thai
- การหย่าร้าง gaan-yàa-ráang, การหย่า gaan-yàa, หย่า yàa
- divorce in Vietnamese
- ly hôn, ly dị
- divorce in Myanmar
- ကွာရှင်းခြင်း kwahrang:hkrang:, ကွာရှင်းပြတ်စဲခြင်း kwahrang:pratcai:hkrang:, ကွာရှင်း kwahrang:
Examples of divorce in a sentence
- Since he left her, she's suing him for divorce on grounds of abandonment.
- The period immediately following my divorce seemed like the end of my world.
- Did you know Michelle and Jack were getting divorced? ― Yes, I knew.
Synonyms of divorce
- divorcement
- partition
- separation
- severance
- split up
- disassociate
- disjoint
- dissociate
- disunite
- separate
Antonyms
Forms of divorce
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | divorces |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | divorces |
| present participle | divorcing |
| past participle | divorced |
| past | divorced |
Origin of divorce
Derived from Old French divorce, from Latin dīvortium, from dīvertere (“to turn aside”), from dī- (“apart”) + vertere (“to turn”); see verse.
Words formed from divorce
- alpine divorce
- antidivorce
- bifurcated divorce
- big divorce energy
- divorce a mensa et thoro
- divorce bill
- divorce from bed and board
- divorceless
- divorce mill
- divorce rape
- divortiality
- dudevorce
- gray divorce
- grey divorce
- Mexican divorce
- migratory divorce
- no-fault divorce
- nondivorce
- postdivorce
- predivorce
- Reno divorce
- sleep divorce
- Spenard divorce
- velvet divorce
- divorcee
- divorcive
- redivorce
- undivorce
- divorceable
- divorcer
- divorcible
- innocently divorced
- nondivorcing
Phrases with divorce
Words that rhyme with divorce
Questions about divorce
- What does divorce mean?
- Divorce means the legal dissolution of a marriage.
- What is divorce in Hindi?
- Divorce in Hindi is तलाक़ (talāq), तलाक (talāk), त्याग (tyāg). See Divorce meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is divorce?
- Divorce can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce divorce?
- Divorce is pronounced /dɪˈvɔːs/ (UK).
- What is the plural of divorce?
- The plural of divorce is divorces.
Words near divorce in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: divorce (page history and authors); Divorce (page history and authors); ਤਲਾਕ਼ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); divorce (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-divorce.wav.
Cite this entry: “divorce.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/divorce. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.