departed
Americanadjective
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deceased; dead.
-
gone; past.
noun
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departeds
plural
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of departed
Explanation
Something that's departed is gone, or happened in the distant past. An archaeologist might unearth artifacts from a departed era. Anything that's past or long gone is departed, including a person who has died. When your friend talks about her dear, departed Uncle Bob, you know that Uncle Bob is no longer living. The word has been a euphemism for "dead" since at least the 16th century — the traditional wedding service once read "till death us depart," rather than today's "till death do us part."
Vocabulary lists containing departed
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
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Shine On, Luz Véliz!
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On 8 July, US President Donald Trump boarded Air Force One in plain sight of television cameras as he departed the Nato summit in Turkey.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The 1979 movie version, a landmark of the Aussie New Wave, established the careers of director Gillian Armstrong, actress Judy Davis and the recently departed New Zealander Sam Neill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
If, God forbid, Maddie should disappear — if Grande departed public life, as she’s now planning on — there would be a hole in Deena’s life.
From Salon ● Aug. 8, 2026
Doximity has made AI a bigger focus lately, although it lost some key executive talent last summer when Nate Gross, one of its co-founders, departed for OpenAI, where he now runs healthcare strategy.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
When the Abbot had departed, Chickenhound snuggled his filthy body down against the clean white sheets.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
