name, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The act of severing or the state of being severed. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the act of severing wordnet
3. 3
   A separation. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions) wordnet
5. 5
   A severance payment. countable, uncountable

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms

separationdivorceabscissionalterationamputationanalysis

Example

More examples

"It's just not right to fire Tom without giving him severance pay."

Etymology

English sever + -ance, from Middle English severaunce, from Anglo-Norman, Old French sevrance, from sevrer.

Related phrases

severance taxcut offcutting offfired paynew jobseverance payment

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.