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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-say, -vohr-, -vawr-say, -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

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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

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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

There’s another complication: Last year, I gave my sister $25,000 from our joint savings when her divorce was about to cost her the house.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 6, 2026

La La filed for divorce from the NBA star back in 2021, citing irreconcilable differences, according to TMZ, which first reported on the settlement Wednesday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2026

The mood was of a divorce where all parties still want to be friends… if possible.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

Joyner on Wednesday framed the divorce as a forward-looking business move that will better position the two companies for growth in a rapidly changing healthcare market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

As part of her temperance message, she argued that a woman should be allowed to divorce a “drunkard” and retain custody of her children.

From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling

Yet the song was actually Mellencamp’s response to the emptiness he felt as a famous divorcé on the road playing the biggest concerts of his life.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

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

A poet turned filmmaker, a husband turned divorcé, a son turned orphan, our hero is caught between who he once was and who he has become.

From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2024

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

From Washington Post ● May 1, 2023

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

From We Can't Have Everything by Rupert Hughes

As the journalists finalized their divorces with their ex-spouses in 2023, reports of a budding romance came to the forefront.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

Mr. Spencer’s four marriages and three divorces barely merit a mention, yet his emotions are center stage as he interweaves his memories around Diana’s death with other scattered recollections.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

I’ve also heard from various people telling me their whole financial picture, down to the pennies in their accounts, and the ins and outs of their divorces, estate fights and bad relationships with financial professionals.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

I think a lot of us feel like we grew up with Hilary, so all of her music resonated with us then, and now, now that we’re older, through relationships or divorces or motherhood.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026

But those were a couple of divorces and a serious illness ago, and the son looking over his shoulder at the mounted snapshots now had little in common with the boy in the pictures.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

Rachel was seven when the two couples went to court together and got divorced.

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

His entry into politics came at age 17 after his father pushed him to run against his mother Rogeria on the Rio de Janeiro city council, a year after his parents divorced.

From Barron's ● Oct. 28, 2026

Their father and I are divorced, and the divorce was far from amicable.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 27, 2026

In 1942 Léon and Beatrice, who had divorced earlier that year, and their two children were sent to Drancy, the Nazi deportation camp outside Paris.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Barack had experienced marriage as ephemeral: His mother had married twice, divorced twice, and in each instance managed to move on with her life, career, and young children intact.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

Holmes and Robach disputed this claim in 2023, noting in their podcast they were both in the process of divorcing their exes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

Finally, the Sun splashes on the marriage breakup of Katie Price and her "conman hubby", as the paper puts it, with: "Katie: I'm divorcing you, Lee."

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

May 2021: Bill and Melinda French Gates announce they are divorcing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

According to the law offices of Christopher Le, divorcing for the sole purpose of obtaining benefits may be viewed as an attempt to manipulate the system.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026

I saw parents announce to their bawling children that they were divorcing.

From "Krik? Krak!" by Edwidge Danticat

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Related Words

• annulment
• breakup
• dissolution
• separation
• split

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