What does depart mean?
To depart is to leave a place, most commonly in order to set out on a journey, and the word carries a distinctly formal tone: airports, railway stations, and shipping lines announce that flights, trains, and vessels depart, whereas everyday conversation prefers 'leave'. Beyond physical movement, depart also means to diverge from an expected course or norm, always with the preposition 'from' — one may depart from tradition, from a script, or from established practice. A further, now largely literary use employs depart as a gentle euphemism for dying, preserved in phrases such as 'depart this life' and in the noun phrase 'the departed'. Derived forms include 'departure', the standard noun for an act of leaving, and 'departed'. The word descends from Old French 'departir', ultimately rooted in the Latin 'partire', meaning to divide, which links it to words such as 'part', 'portion', and 'partition'. Its precision and formality make it especially useful in official, journalistic, and ceremonial writing.
To leave a place, especially to begin a journey; to go away.
"The ferry departs for the island twice daily during summer."
Formal register; typical of travel announcements and schedules. In the figurative sense of deviating, it takes the preposition 'from': 'to depart from convention'.
(Euphemistic or literary) To die; to pass away.
"She spoke tenderly of her father, who had departed the previous spring."
Largely literary today; survives mainly in 'depart this life' and 'the departed'.
"Depart" and "part" share the same Latin root meaning "a piece" — so when you depart, you're literally splitting yourself off from where you were.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of depart
Depart entered Middle English from Old French 'departir', which originally meant to divide or share out, built on the Late Latin 'departire' from 'partire' — to divide — itself derived from 'pars', meaning a part. Over time the English verb shifted from the sense of separating into pieces toward the sense of a person separating themselves from a place, producing the modern meaning of leaving. It thus shares its root with words such as 'part', 'portion', 'partition', and 'impart'.
Related word forms
How depart is actually used
Depart is noticeably more formal than 'leave' and is the register of timetables, announcements, and official notices rather than casual speech. The figurative sense always takes the preposition 'from' ('depart from tradition'). The euphemistic sense of dying is largely literary or archaic today, though 'the departed' survives in formal and religious contexts.
Easily confused with depart
Deport means to expel someone from a country by legal process, while depart simply means to leave a place.