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• divorce
  divorce

  noun

  the act of legally ending a marriage.
• divorcé
  divorcé

  noun

  a divorced man.

divorce

¹ American  

[dih-vawrs] / dɪˈvɔrs /

noun

divorces plural

1. the act of legally ending a marriage.

   After the divorce, they shared custody of the children.

2. any formal separation of spouses according to established custom.

3. the act of legally ending a formal contract before its term is up, especially in professional sports.

   If there’s a personality clash between the player and the manager, divorce may be the only way out.

   It’s a guide to corporate divorce, laying out who pays what to whom at the early termination of a contract.

4. a total separation between two things; disunion.

   Activists denounced the divorce between thought and action when it came to protecting human rights.

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verb (used with object)

divorced, divorcing

1. to legally end the marriage contract between oneself and (one's spouse).

   She divorced her husband.

2. to permanently separate (a couple) through a judicial declaration that ends their marriage contract.

   The judge divorced the couple.

3. to separate or cut off.

   His view of the situation has become totally divorced from reality.

   Synonyms:

   disjoin, detach, sever, disconnect, divide, dissociate, rupture, disjunction, dissolution, breakup, annulment

verb (used without object)

divorced, divorcing

1. to legally end one’s marriage.

   After 16 years together, they divorced.

   I never thought about money till I divorced.

divorcé ² American  

[dih-vawr-sey, -vohr-, -vawr-sey, -vohr-] / dɪ vɔrˈseɪ, -voʊr-, -ˈvɔr seɪ, -ˈvoʊr- /

noun

1. a divorced man.

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divorce ¹ British  

/ dɪˈvɔːs /

noun

1. the dissolution of a marriage by judgment of a court or by accepted custom

2. a judicial decree declaring a marriage to be dissolved

3. a separation, esp one that is total or complete

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verb

1. to separate or be separated by divorce; give or obtain a divorce (to a couple or from one's spouse)

2. (tr) to remove or separate, esp completely

divorcé ² British  

/ dɪˈvɔːseɪ /

noun

1. a man who has been divorced

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Gender

See fiancée.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• divorcer
  noun
• divorceable
  adjective
• divorcive
  adjective
• nondivorced
  adjective
• undivorceable
  adjective
• undivorced
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• divorces
  plural

Etymology

Origin of divorce¹

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin dīvortium “separation,” from dīvort(ere) variant of dīvertere “to turn away” ( see divert) + -ium -ium

Origin of divorcé²

First recorded in 1805–15; from French, noun use of masculine past participle of divorcer, from Medieval Latin dīvortiāre “to divorce,” derivative of Latin dīvortium “separation”; see divorce

Explanation

A divorce is a formal ending of a marriage. It’s more permanent than a separation and involves a legal process. If you get a divorce, that means the marriage is officially over. Divorce has both a noun and a verb form. The noun describes the thing you get — "you are getting a divorce." And the verb describes the thing you do — "you are divorcing your spouse." Divorce can also be used more broadly to describe any major separation. You might know of a politician who divorces himself from a controversial issue — that means he doesn’t want to be associated with it at all.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

divorce divorcé divorces divorced divorcing

Evidence surfaced in court documents submitted in Roh’s divorce that her father had allegedly spent some of the money on clandestine payments to SK.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

The request is a common theme among the Jolie-Pitt siblings since the couple’s marriage was formally dissolved in 2019 and divorce became finalized in 2024 after a long legal battle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

Blackstock, who died in August 2025 at the age of 48, purchased the Butte, Mont., property in April 2022 for an undisclosed amount, just one month after his divorce from Clarkson was finalized.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

"I was going through a divorce and… needed something to occupy my time and my mind so I'm not focusing on negative stuff", she remembers.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

Maybe it was kismet, but they spotted an elderly Iranian man dining with his son and decided to rope them into their kooky divorce plan.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

And there’s the leering, preening Rupert Mannion from “Ted Lasso” — multimillionaire soccer team owner, inveterate philanderer and incurably vindictive divorcé.

From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026

The acclaimed “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” adapted by Taffy Brodesser-Akner from her bestselling 2019 novel, is ostensibly about this Manhattan divorcé and struggling single father, played by Jesse Eisenberg.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2023

The 66-year-old divorcé had just started seeing someone.

From Washington Post ● May 1, 2023

Stepan, an outgoing 41-year-old divorcé with a pet hedgehog, posted photos of oxygen cylinders and explained that he had three in his apartment.

From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2022

He was neither bachelor, husband, nor widower; he was not even a divorcé.

From We Can't Have Everything by Hughes, Rupert

Both stars finalised divorces from their former partners during their time together.

From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026

Lawyers who navigate the system for divorces, custody disputes and family court battles say it will be complicated.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2026

Many painted a picture of "destroyed" lives: divorces, losing custody of their children, prison, psychiatric hospitals, and astronomical medical bills in the hope of regaining "a normal, meaningful life."

From Barron's ● Apr. 29, 2026

They claim that the laws are widely abused as a blackmail tool in divorces, enrich lawyers and let spouses who misbehave off the hook, treating them as passive objects with no agency.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026

There had been several divorces among them, including Yolanda's.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

However, if we divorced after being married for more than 10 years, he would be entitled to 18% of the home’s value.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

The couple, who later divorced, had two sons and an adopted daughter.

From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026

A whole new genre of celebrity divorce: Slate’s Scaachi Koul considers how Bunnie Xo, an archetypical “Cool Girl,” seems to have masterminded a new strategy for getting divorced in the public eye.

From Slate ● Jul. 16, 2026

“I actually got divorced because of starting Pause AI US,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026

And that's precisely why I was left emotionally discombobulated when I found out that my parents had secretly gotten divorced.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

Keep in mind that divorcing solely for the purpose of qualifying for higher benefits may raise legal concerns if the divorce is not genuine.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

But divorcing a film like this from the times in which we’re absorbing it is short of impossible, no matter how much of an escape it provides for 109 minutes.

From Salon ● May 17, 2026

People 50 or older now make up nearly 40% of the divorcing population, up from just 8% in 1990, according to research from Bowling Green State University.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 25, 2026

Her joy of divorcing my father was twofold as she not only left a somewhat feckless husband, but also de-Mycock-ed herself.

From BBC ● Apr. 18, 2026

“Your husband was offered his freedom and his farm back—” My heart leapt! “—if he proved his loyalty to El Jefe by divorcing his Mirabal wife.”

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• annulment
• breakup
• dissolution
• separation
• split