Origin: Latin suffix -ure
Departure has 4 different meanings across 1 category:
the act of departing
"The sudden departure of our lead singer left the band scrambling to finish the tour without a vocalist."
a variation that deviates from the standard or norm
"the deviation from the mean"
The act of departing or something that has departed.
"The sudden departure of the storm left us wondering when the sun would finally peek through the clouds."
In plain English: A departure is the act of leaving a place or situation to go somewhere else.
"The departure of the train was delayed by bad weather."
Usage: Use departure to describe the specific moment someone leaves a place or the event of going away. It refers to the act of leaving itself rather than the person who left.
The word departure comes from the Old French deporture, which originally meant both a physical leaving and figuratively, death. Although it looks like a modern combination of "depart" and "-ure," its history traces back to that earlier French term rather than being formed in English.