divided
Americanadjective
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separated; separate.
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shared; apportioned.
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(of a leaf ) cut into distinct portions by incisions extending to the midrib or base.
adjective
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botany another word for dissected
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split; not united
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of divided
Explanation
Something that's divided is sectioned or split into parts. A divided political party might be separated into several groups with very different opinions on what the party's priorities ought to be. Things can be physically divided, the way a pizza is when it's cut into eight separate pieces, or the way a highway is when it has a concrete barrier between lanes that go in different directions. There's also a figurative way of being divided, like a divided family that's feuding about something, or divided experts who disagree on the findings of a study. The adjective divided comes from the Latin dividere, "to force apart, cleave, or distribute."
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.
The chart includes forward price-to-earnings ratios, which are Thursday’s closing prices divided by consensus 12-month earnings-per-share estimates among analysts polled by FactSet, weighted by market capitalization.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
Lehigh Acres sprang up more than 70 years ago when wealthy Chicago businessman Lee Ratner and some partners began buying thousands of acres of ranchland and eventually divided it into more than 100,000 residential lots.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Covering about four square kilometers, the enormous stone-walled settlement was divided into separate functional areas.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 21, 2026
The water was originally divided among the states in 1922 under an agreement that overpromised what the river could provide.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The men had been divided up into different teams, and each team was going to land in a different spot along the East Coast of America.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
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.
