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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

Now, Carney was accelerating Canada’s pivot to Europe, matchmaking a shotgun marriage to offset the pain of its divorce with America.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

After a divorce: Divorce is the most obvious trigger — but as Kleinfeldt’s case shows, wanting to update your beneficiary designations isn’t enough.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

The court said "both sides bore equal responsibility for the breakdown of the marriage" and therefore granted the divorce but rejected Lee's claim for damages, she added.

From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026

It led to divorce and birthed the series, which aimed to give a glimpse of Utah’s Mormon mom influencers navigating the hyper-conservative religious expectations they live by or grew up in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

“This country’s divorce rate is over 50 percent. Maybe OST could help.”

From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty

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

“It’s a slice of life. He’s a divorcé and a father, and he’s struggling to understand his daughter.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 30, 2021

This German comedy about a divorcé who goes to extreme lengths to spend time with his daughter earned glowing reviews, despite running for a posterior-numbing two hours and 42 minutes.

From BBC ● May 22, 2016

He gave her rapidly a sketch of the life and antecedents of Lord Donald of Dunoon—gambler, wastrel, divorcé, et cetera, speaking quite frankly, almost as he would have spoken to a man.

From Helena by Mrs. Humphry Ward

The industry often divorces us from what got us into the business in the first place: making believe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

But what if she divorces her second husband?

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026

"Working has kept me young, vigorous, energetic, knowledgeable, fun," said Cohen, who has represented celebrities in their divorces, including former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

From BBC ● Jun. 13, 2026

While divorces are often expensive, acrimonious and painful for the rest of the family, I came to see that they sometimes are the most necessary step a person can take for their own well-being.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

So they were overwhelmingly solo practitioners, handling wills and divorces and contracts and minor disputes, and in the Depression the work of the solo practitioner all but disappeared.

From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell

Kramer’s sister, Kaitlin, wrote on social media that Wehr had told the 22-year-old that he was “almost fully divorced and extremely separated.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

He married Hollywood singer and actress Lulu Porter in 1960, but they divorced three years later.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

Stewart was also divorced by the time her empire was at its peak — and people also criticized her, for different reasons.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

“After a marriage for this period of time, differentiating between marital and non-marital assets became excessively challenging,” when they got divorced, he says.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026

Last summer, just before my grandfather married Margaret, my mother and father got divorced, and Mother moved the two of us to upstate New York where she had grown up.

From "The View From Saturday" by E.L. Konigsburg

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

Right now there’s a lot of talk about divorcing your parents going around.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026

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

I had an aunt who went as far as divorcing her husband and briefly marrying an American family friend so that she could get a green card.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

Related Words

• annulment
• breakup
• dissolution
• separation
• split