- 1[uncountable, singular] the act of separating people or things; the state of being separate separation (from somebody/something) the state's eventual separation from the federation separation (between A and B) the need for a clear separation between Church and State
- 2[countable] a period of time that people spend apart from each other They were reunited after a separation of more than 20 years. Prolonged separations of this kind are damaging to very young children.
- 3[countable] a decision that a husband and wife make to live apart while they are still legally married a legal separation Sixty percent of all marital separations occur before the tenth year of marriage. compare divorce separate adjectiveseparately adverbseparable adjective (≠inseparable)separate verbseparated adjectiveseparation noun
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