departed
Americanadjective
-
deceased; dead.
-
gone; past.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of departed
Explanation
Something that's departed is gone, or happened in the distant past. An archaeologist might unearth artifacts from a departed era. Anything that's past or long gone is departed, including a person who has died. When your friend talks about her dear, departed Uncle Bob, you know that Uncle Bob is no longer living. The word has been a euphemism for "dead" since at least the 16th century — the traditional wedding service once read "till death us depart," rather than today's "till death do us part."
Vocabulary lists containing departed
The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora
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Shine On, Luz Véliz!
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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.
Scott Pelley, one of the show’s longest-serving correspondents, departed after pushing back against the firings, criticizing Weiss and questioning Bilton’s qualifications during a staff meeting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Prosecutor Lucie Fish told the court that, on Thursday, a rigid hulled inflatable boat departed the French coast headed towards Dover carrying the migrants.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
The crew had departed the space station at 2:03 a.m.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026
In April and May, all of Saudi seaborne crude exports departed from its Red Sea port of Yanbu, according to Kpler data.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Over the next months, tens of thousands of frightened Jews departed for the outlying towns and villages from which many of them had so recently fled.
From "The Boy on the Wooden Box" by Leon Leyson
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.
