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Department vs Discipline - What's the difference?

department | discipline |

As nouns the difference between department and discipline

is that department is a part, portion, or subdivision while discipline is a controlled behaviour; self-control.

As a verb discipline is

to train someone by instruction and practice.

department

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A part, portion, or subdivision.
  • A distinct course of life, action, study, or the like.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2014
  • , date=November 14 , author=Stephen Halliday , title=Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero , work=The Scotsman citation , page= , passage=Flair and invention were very much at a premium, suffocated by the relentless pace and often fractious nature of proceedings. The absence of James Morrison from the centre of Scotland’s midfield, the West Brom man ruled out on the morning of the game by illness, had already diminished the creative capacity of the home side in that department .}}
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars), (Thomas Babington Macaulay)
  • A subdivision of an organization.
  • # One of the principal divisions of executive government
  • the Treasury Department'''''; ''the '''Department''' of Agriculture''; ''police '''department
  • # One of the divisions of instructions
  • the physics department'''''; ''the gender studies '''department
  • A territorial division; a district; especially, in France, one of the districts composed of several arrondissements into which the country is divided for governmental purposes.
  • * 2002 , , 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.
  • (label) A military subdivision of a country; as, the Department of the Potomac.
  • (label) Act of departing; departure.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars), Wotton
  • sudden 'departments from one extreme to another

    Synonyms

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

    Derived terms

    * departmental * departmentally

    See also

    * province * state

    discipline

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A controlled behaviour; self-control.
  • * Rogers
  • The most perfect, who have their passions in the best discipline , are yet obliged to be constantly on their guard.
  • An enforced compliance or control.
  • * '>citation
  • A systematic method of obtaining obedience.
  • * C. J. Smith
  • Discipline aims at the removal of bad habits and the substitution of good ones, especially those of order, regularity, and obedience.
  • A state of order based on submission to authority.
  • * Dryden
  • Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part, / Obey the rules and discipline of art.
  • A punishment to train or maintain control.
  • * Addison
  • giving her the discipline of the strap
  • A set of rules regulating behaviour.
  • A flagellation as a means of obtaining sexual gratification.
  • A specific branch of knowledge or learning.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline : too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory. Its apparent simplicity explains why it is scrutinised down to tenths of a percentage point every month.}}
    (Bishop Wilkins)
  • A category in which a certain art, sport or other activity belongs.
  • Synonyms

    * (branch or category) field, sphere * (punishment) penalty, sanction

    Antonyms

    * spontaneity

    Derived terms

    * academic discipline

    Verb

    (disciplin)
  • To train someone by instruction and practice.
  • To teach someone to obey authority.
  • To punish someone in order to (re)gain control.
  • To impose order on someone.
  • Synonyms

    * drill