severance
Americannoun
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a breaking off, as of a friendship.
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Law. a division into parts, as of liabilities or provisions; removal of a part from the whole.
noun
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the act of severing or state of being severed
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a separation
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law the division into separate parts of a joint estate, contract, etc
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of severance
First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English severaunce, from Anglo-French; equivalent to sever + -ance
Explanation
A severance is the ending of a connection or relationship. A terrible argument between you and your cousin could turn into an all-out feud and eventually a complete severance between the two branches of your family. The noun severance implies a separation or cut of some kind, like a severance between your father and the political party with which he has become disenchanted. If you cut off relations with a person, group, or organization, you've initiated a severance. The phrase "severance pay" means the deal a company offers to an employee who's being let go. Severance comes from the word sever, "to cut," whose origin is the Latin separare, or "separate."
Vocabulary lists containing severance
Invisible Man
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Beowulf
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for March 2–March 8, 2024
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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.
See Examples For:
More than 4,500 Google workers signed a petition demanding protections such as voluntary exit packages and guaranteed severance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
This can be perilous, since the six-month mark is when many job seekers lose severance or unemployment benefits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
This is where severance payments and opportunities for laid-off staff to shift into open roles are discussed, and arguments put forward for some to be reinstated.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
In January, a judge ordered the company to pay $413,000 in unpaid wages and severance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Discharged with or without honor, fired with or without severance, dispossessed with or without notice, they hung around for a while and then could not imagine themselves anywhere else.
From "Jazz" by Toni Morrison
Discovery told investors that the cost of the downsizing would exceed $1 billion, to pay severances among other expenses.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
“I asked him repeatedly if the governor had approved or knew about any of his severances or payments, and Roy repeatedly refused to say that was the case,” Mayer said Thursday.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2021
Still, newspapers with strong guilds – the New York Times and Washington Post – have seen fewer layoffs and less brutal severances, on the whole, than those without.
From Salon ● Mar. 18, 2013
Isoult began to cry at this, which cut her deeper than all the severances she had known.
From The Forest Lovers by Hewlett, Maurice Henry
It was for Davenport to learn what severances would produce, not the disagreeable effect of the operation known to criminals, but a result altogether pleasing.
From The Mystery of Murray Davenport A Story of New York at the Present Day by Stephens, Robert Neilson
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.