separation
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌsɛp.əˈɹeɪ.ʃən/
ipa: /ˌsep.əˈɹæɪ.ʃən/
rhymes: -eɪʃən
Forms: form: separations
Etymology: Attested in the 15th Century C.E.; from Middle English separacioun, from Old French separacion, from Latin separatio, separationem. Morphologically separate + -ion.
Senses: synonyms: detachment
disjunction
division
rupture
severance
antonyms: word: annexation
word: combination
word: unification
word: cleft
word: disjoint
word: disjunct
word: disjunction
word: disunification
word: disunion
word: dysjunction
word: malunion
word: misunion
word: separation
glosses: The act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated.
examples: text: We were a band of brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. The thought which gave us the most pain, was the probable separation which would now take place, in case we were sold off to the far south, as we were likely to be.
ref: 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 19, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:
text: […] my longing for her was undiminished despite our months of near-complete separation.
ref: 2007, Mohsin Hamid, chapter 10, in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Orlando: Harcourt, page 141:
glosses: The act or condition of two or more people being separated from one another.
examples: text: ‘If he dares to refuse me a separation, I’ll have one in law—I can—and I hope this will be a warning to all girls who have seen this disgraceful exhibition.’
ref: 1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in Nicholas Nickleby:
text: […] she [knows] her great-aunt’s concern over her son Warren, his two divorces, and now Alice’s bitter separation from her husband, Ben.
ref: 1993, Carol Shields, chapter 8, in The Stone Diaries, Toronto: Vintage, published 1994, page 302:
glosses: The act or condition of a married couple living in separate homes while remaining legally married.
examples: text: I should have gone back to her the day after the fair, if it hadn't been for you talking about the law, and rubbish about getting a separation;
ref: 1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 52, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC:
text: “You are deserting me?”
“Don’t be the neglected, dramatic wife, Scarlett. The rôle isn’t becoming. I take it, then, you do not want a divorce or even a separation? Well, then, I’ll come back often enough to keep gossip down.”
ref: 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter 63, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:
topics: law
glosses: The act or condition of a married couple living in separate homes while remaining legally married.
An agreement legalizing such an arrangement.
synonyms: divorce from bed and board
examples: text: I was now on the separation of two vast water-sheds; behind me all the streams were bound for the Garonne and the Western Ocean; before me was the basin of the Rhone.
ref: 1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Heart of the Country”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes:
synonyms: border
boundary
demarcation
glosses: The place at which a division occurs.
examples: text: […] gentle friend, for love and courtesy
Lie further off; in human modesty,
Such separation as may well be said
Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
So far be distant;
ref: c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act II, scene 2:
synonyms: word: break
word: interstice
word: break
word: gap
word: interlapse
word: interspace
word: interstice
word: interstitium
word: opening
word: separation
word: space
glosses: An interval, gap or space that separates things or people.
examples: text: [The orchard] was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers: a very high wall shut it out from the court, on one side; on the other, a beech avenue screened it from the lawn. At the bottom was a sunk fence; its sole separation from lonely fields:
ref: 1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 23, in Jane Eyre:
synonyms: barrier
separator
glosses: An object that separates two spaces.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: Departure from active duty, while not necessarily leaving the service entirely.
Synonyms: word: detachment
word: departition
word: disassociation
word: disconnection
word: discontinuity
word: disengagement
word: disjunction
word: disseverance
word: dissociation
word: disunion
word: disunity
word: division
word: inconnection
word: parting
word: rupture
word: separation
word: severance
word: split
word: sunderance
Hypernyms: word: irrelation
Hyponyms: word: schism
word: segregation
word: sequestration
Derived terms: antiseparation
bioseparation
color separation
cyclonic separation
diastereoseparation
electroseparation
enantioseparation
immunomagnetic separation
immunoseparation
judicial separation
legal separation
marital separation
membrane separation
microseparation
nanoseparation
nonseparation
phase separation
postseparation
separational
separation allowance
separation anxiety
separation anxiety disorder
separation constant
separation energy
separation from bed and board
separationism
separationist
separation of concerns
separation of duties
separation of powers
separation pay
static separation of duty
trial separation
unseparation
vertex separation number
Related terms: word: division
word: fission
word: interspace