Jump To:

• 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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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

Election lawyers told the newsrooms that it is unlikely Paxton could make such an argument given his ongoing public and acrimonious divorce.

From Salon ● Jul. 28, 2026

They also welcomed a child together, Chaz Bono, who was born Chastity Sun, before their divorce in 1975.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026

Either side can appeal the decision to South Korea’s Supreme Court, which would mark the fifth trial tied to their divorce.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

A South Korean court ordered an AI chip-manufacturing tycoon on Friday to make a trimmed-down $644 million divorce payment to his former wife.

From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026

He called the other day and asked Mom if she’d received the divorce papers.

From "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Rob Buyea

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 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

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 Ward, Humphry, Mrs.

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

It's a sizeable sum to part with when divorces can be expensive.

From BBC ● Jul. 6, 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

“Having gone through two divorces herself,” her law firm’s webpage bio reads, “Dana feels she brings a special nuance to her family law cases.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

O’Neill listened carefully while I went through Jesse’s story: his family’s involvement in a religious cult when he was young, the three divorces he’d lived through, his father’s illness.

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

The divorced aspiring actor “filmed every second of my life” when she was a youngster, noting that the two were inseparable.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

By then, my French father, Emmanuel, a prominent art dealer, and my English mother, Honor, a painter, had divorced.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026

Hannah's parents divorced when she was a toddler and she hasn't had much of a relationship with her dad since.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 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

If his parents weren’t divorced, then he wouldn’t have to leave home every other weekend and go to his dad’s dumb apartment.

From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold

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

Sometimes, divorcing couples clash over who gets the car or the house.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026

Previously, divorcing couples in Japan were free to decide custody and visitation arrangements.

From BBC ● Apr. 1, 2026

It’s not as if she was divorcing them.

From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée

Related Words

• annulment
• breakup
• dissolution
• separation
• split