different between department vs faculty

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French département.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??p??tm(?)nt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??p??tm?nt/
• Hyphenation: de?part?ment

Noun

department (plural departments)

1. A part, portion, or subdivision.
2. A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like.
3. A specified aspect or quality.

   The 2012 Boston Marathon was outstanding in the temperature department; runners endured temperatures of no less than 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. A subdivision of an organization.
   1. (often in proper names) One of the principal divisions of executive government

      the Treasury Department; the Department of Agriculture; police department

   2. (in a university) One of the divisions of instructions

      the physics department; the gender studies department

5. A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts into which the country is divided for governmental purposes, similar to a county in the UK and in the USA. France is composed of 101 départements organized in 18 régions, each department is divided into arrondissements, in turn divided into cantons.
   • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to the 1715-99, Penguin 2003, p. 427:

     The departments were the bricks from which the edifice of the nation was to be constructed.

6. (historical) A military subdivision of a country

7. (obsolete) Act of departing; departure.
   • 1624, Henry Wotton, The Elements of Architecture

     sudden 'departments from one extreame to another

Synonyms

• (distinct course): province, specialty
• (division of executive government): ministry

Derived terms

• departmental
• departmentally
• Department of Redundancy Department
• department store
• fire department
• interdepartmental
• police department
• state department
• trouser department

Translations

See also

• province
• state

English

Etymology

From Middle English faculte (“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas (“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property; in Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas (“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis (“easy, facile”); see facile.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?fæ.k?l.ti/

Noun

faculty (plural faculties)

1. (chiefly US) The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.
2. A division of a university.

3. Often in the plural: an ability, power, or skill.
4. An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority.
5. (Church of England) A licence to make alterations to a church.
6. The members of a profession.

Usage notes

In the sense of academic staff at a university, academic staff, teaching staff or simply staff are preferred in British English.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:faculty

Related terms

• facultative

Translations

Further reading

• faculty in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• faculty in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.