apart

/əˈpɑrt/

/əˈpɑt/

When things are apart, they are separated, often because they're far away from each other. If you are in Hawaii for the summer and your best friend is in Maine, you are apart.

You can say that San Diego and San Francisco are about 500 miles apart, or that you hate spending time apart from your cat when you travel. Sometimes people are figuratively apart, when they've ended their relationship. You can also use apart to mean "in pieces," as when a firecracker blows apart an apple. The word comes from the Old French à part, "to the side," from the Latin roots ad "to," and partem, "a side."

Definitions of apart

1. adverb

   separated or at a distance in place or position or time
   “These towns are many miles apart”

   “stood with his legs apart”

   “born two years apart”
2. adverb

   away from another or others
   “they grew apart over the years”

   “kept apart from the group out of shyness”

   “decided to live apart”

   synonyms: aloof
3. adverb

   placed or kept separate and distinct as for a purpose
   “had a feeling of being set apart”

   “quality sets it apart”

   synonyms: aside
4. adverb

   one from the other
   “people can't tell the twins apart”
5. adverb

   into parts or pieces
   “he took his father's watch apart”

   “split apart”

   synonyms: asunder
6. adverb

   not taken into account or excluded from consideration
   “these problems apart, the country is doing well”

   synonyms: aside
7. adjective

   remote and separate physically or socially
   “existed over the centuries as a world apart”

   “"preserved because they inhabited a place apart"- W.H.Hudson”

   synonyms: isolated, obscure

   unconnected

   not joined or linked together
8. adjective

   having characteristics not shared by others
   “"scientists felt they were a group apart"- Vannever Bush”

   synonyms:

   separate

   independent; not united or joint