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Synonyms

department store

American  

noun

  1. a large retail store carrying a wide variety of merchandise and organized into various departments for sales and administrative purposes.

department store British  

noun

  1. a large shop divided into departments selling a great many kinds of goods

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of department store

An Americanism dating back to 1885–90

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.

With its brass rails and swing doors it has the feel of an old-fashioned department store.

From BBC • Apr. 28, 2026

Other assets include stakes in LIV Golf, U.K. department store chain Selfridges and Uber.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Get thee to a department store for some soft furnishings.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 3, 2026

Left to talk, Jacobs whirls through stories of past, present and future: anecdotes about his grandmother planning her lunch spot around which department store she’d spend the day at, and memories of Bob Fosse films.

From Salon • Mar. 27, 2026

In the center of the crowd that had formed before the department store the hunting cap, the green radius of the circle of people, was bobbing about violently.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

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.