Divorce is the legal ending of a marriage. When two people get married, they make official promises to stay together, but sometimes marriages don't work out. Divorce is the formal process that allows married people to stop being husband and wife and go their separate ways.

The divorce process involves courts and lawyers because marriage is a legal arrangement with official rights and responsibilities. Couples must figure out practical matters like where each person will live, how to divide their possessions, and if they have children, how to share parenting responsibilities. These decisions can be complicated and sometimes take a long time to sort out.

The word can also mean separating or disconnecting things that were joined together, though this usage is less common. A writer might divorce an idea from its context, meaning to consider it separately from its surroundings.