/ Sign up
English (UK)
Cambridge Dictionary Online

Meaning of divorce in English

divorce
noun
uk
/dɪˈvɔːs/ us
/dɪˈvɔːrs/

divorce noun (PEOPLE)

Add to word list Add to word list
B1 [ C or U ]
an official or legal process to end a marriage:
get a divorce The last I heard they were getting a divorce.
Divorce is on the increase.
Ellie wants a divorce.
end in divorce What are the chances of a marriage ending in divorce?
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Relationships: ending & divorce
See more results »

divorce noun (SUBJECTS)

[ C ] formal
a separation:
divorce between Why is there such a divorce between the arts and the sciences in this country's schools?
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Separating and dividing
See more results »
divorce
verb
uk
/dɪˈvɔːs/ us
/dɪˈvɔːrs/

divorce verb (PEOPLE)

B2 [ I or T ]
to end your marriage by an official or legal process:
She's divorcing her husband.
More examplesFewer examples
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Relationships: ending & divorce
See more results »

divorce verb (SUBJECTS)

[ T ]
to separate two subjects:
How can you divorce the issues of environmental protection and overpopulation?
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Separating and dividing
See more results »

Grammar

Marry and divorce
We usually use marry and divorce with an object: …
divorcé
noun [ C ]
uk
/dɪˌvɔːˈseɪ/ us
/dəˌvɔːrˈseɪ/
US
a man who is divorced and who has not married again
Compare
divorcee
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Marriage: marital status
See more results »
(Definition of divorce from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

divorce | American Dictionary

divorce
verb [ I/T ]
us
/dɪˈvɔrs, -ˈvoʊrs/
Add to word list Add to word list
to cause a marriage to a husband or wife to end by an official or legal process, or to have a marriage ended in this way:
[ T ] Ford divorced his wife, Anne, in 1964, and married Cristina a year later.
[ T ] They didn’t get divorced (= end their marriage legally) until 2007.

divorce

noun [ C/U ] us
/dɪˈvɔrs, -ˈvoʊrs/
[ C ] Both of them agreed to the divorce.

Phrasal verb

divorce something from something
divorcé
noun [ C ]
us/dɪˌvɔrˈseɪ, -ˌvoʊr-, -ˈsi/
a man whose marriage officially ended while his wife was still alive
(Definition of divorce from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of divorce

divorce
She then divorced her husband who later died.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The point is not an abstract one, as it affected, for example, the status of foreign divorces.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Over time, divorces have occurred at increasingly shorter durations of marriage.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In 1989, the number of children under 16 with parents who divorced was 148 thousand.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The new public world was one in which power was increasingly divorced from the family.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The introduction of the frame divorced the structure from the load-bearing function of the wall, and freed the two elements.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Seventeen of these initially married families divorced between the initial assessment and the young adult assessment.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Ninety-six triadic interactions were available because 12 couples had divorced.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The registers indicate dates of divorces and the abandonment of women (men who were abandoned by their wives were not registered as such).
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Furthermore, becoming divorced resulted in increases in drinking, suggesting that the effects of marital dissolution during young adulthood are important.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Isolated utterances have been divorced from their context, a practice which is unpardonable in the history of ideas.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
Maybe this is because linguistic investigations tend to be highly theoretical - and divorced from most people's immediate interests in language.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
In an age of the ever-powerful, omnipotent and omnipresent nation state, culture cannot be divorced from the wider political environment.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The relationship between dealer and client is not always divorced from the occult.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
The shared assumption of legal professionals, therapeutic professionals and divorcing parents alike is that such a decision calls for therapeutic, not legal, expertise.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
See all examples of divorce
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with divorce

divorce

These are words often used in combination with divorce.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

contested divorce
For a five-year period to operate in the case of a contested divorce puts the non-consenting party in a very strong bargaining position.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
divorce case
Moreover, the order made by magistrates in these cases forms the basis of a divorce case.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
divorce law
Three distinct strands of opinion worked together to press for a re-evaluation of the operation of divorce law.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
See all collocations with divorce
What is the pronunciation of divorce, divorcé?
 

Translations of divorce

in Chinese (Traditional)
人們, 離婚, 主題…
See more
in Chinese (Simplified)
人们, 离婚, 主题…
See more
in Spanish
divorcio, separación, divorciarse…
See more
in Portuguese
divórcio, divorciar-se (de), divorciado…
See more
in more languages
in Marathi
in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Dutch
in Tamil
in Hindi
in Gujarati
in Danish
in Swedish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Urdu
in Ukrainian
in Telugu
in Bengali
in Czech
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Korean
in Italian
विवाह समाप्त करण्यासाठी अधिकृत किंवा कायदेशीर प्रक्रिया, घटस्फोट…
See more
離婚, 離婚（りこん）, 離婚（りこん）する…
See more
boşanma, boşamak, ayırmak…
See more
divorce [masculine], divorcer, divorce…
See more
divorci…
See more
echtscheiding, scheiden, van elkaar scheiden…
See more
ஒரு திருமண உறவை முறித்துக்கொள்ள ஒரு உத்தியோகபூர்வ அல்லது சட்ட பூர்வமான செயல்முறை, உத்தியோகபூர்வ அல்லது சட்ட செயல்முறை மூலம் உங்கள் திருமணத்தை முடிக்க…
See more
संबंध विच्छेद, तलाक…
See more
છૂટાછેડા, તલાક…
See more
skilsmisse, blive skilt, adskille…
See more
skilsmässa, skiljas, skilja sig…
See more
penceraian, cerai, berpisah…
See more
die Scheidung, scheiden, trennen…
See more
skilsmisse [masculine], å skille seg (fra), å skilles…
See more
طلاق…
See more
розлучення, розлучатися, розривати шлюб…
See more
విడాకులు, వివాహాన్ని ముగించడానికి అధికారిక లేదా చట్టపరమైన ప్రక్రియ…
See more
বিবাহ বিচ্ছেদ, ডিভোর্স, বিবাহবিচ্ছেদ…
See more
rozvod, rozvést (se), oddělit…
See more
perceraian, menceraikan, memisahkan…
See more
การหย่าร้าง, หย่า, แยกออก…
See more
sự ly hôn, ly hôn, tách khỏi…
See more
rozwód, rozwieść się (z), rozdzielać…
See more
이혼…
See more
divorzio, divorziare, separare…
See more
Need a translator?

Get a quick, free translation!

Translator tool
 

Browse

divisive
divisively
divisiveness
divisor
divorce
divorce something from something phrasal verb
divorced
divorced from something
divorcee

Word of the Day

smooth something over

UK
/smuːð/
US
/smuːð/

to make problems, difficulties, or disagreements less serious or easier to solve, usually by talking to the people involved

About this

Blog

All good things come to an end: talking about leaving a place

has been added to list
English (UK)   Change
English (UK) English (US) Español Português 中文 (简体) 正體中文 (繁體) Dansk Deutsch Français Italiano Nederlands Norsk Polski Русский Türkçe Tiếng Việt Svenska Українська 日本語 한국어 ગુજરાતી தமிழ் తెలుగు বাঙ্গালি मराठी हिंदी
Follow us
Choose a dictionary
  • Recent and Recommended
  • Definitions
    Clear explanations of natural written and spoken English
    English Learner’s Dictionary Essential British English Essential American English
  • Grammar and thesaurus
    Usage explanations of natural written and spoken English
    Grammar Thesaurus
  • Pronunciation
    British and American pronunciations with audio
    English Pronunciation
  • Translation
    Click on the arrows to change the translation direction.
    Bilingual Dictionaries
    • English–Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Simplified)–English
    • English–Chinese (Traditional) Chinese (Traditional)–English
    • English–Danish Danish–English
    • English–Dutch Dutch–English
    • English–French French–English
    • English–German German–English
    • English–Indonesian Indonesian–English
    • English–Italian Italian–English
    • English–Japanese Japanese–English
    • English–Norwegian Norwegian–English
    • English–Polish Polish–English
    • English–Portuguese Portuguese–English
    • English–Spanish Spanish–English
    • English–Swedish Swedish–English
    Semi-bilingual Dictionaries
    English–Arabic English–Bengali English–Catalan English–Czech English–Gujarati English–Hindi English–Korean English–Malay English–Marathi English–Russian English–Tamil English–Telugu English–Thai English–Turkish English–Ukrainian English–Urdu English–Vietnamese
  • Dictionary +Plus
    Word Lists
Contents
My word lists

To add divorce to a word list please sign up or log in.

Sign up or Log in
My word lists

Add divorce to one of your lists below, or create a new one.

More
Go to your word lists
Tell us about this example sentence: