severance

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: sev=er=ance

CIDE DICTIONARY

severance, n. 

•  The act of severing, or the state of being severed; partition; separation.  Milman.  [1913 Webster]
•  The act of dividing; the singling or severing of two or more that join, or are joined, in one writ; the putting in several or separate pleas or answers by two or more disjointly; the destruction of the unity of interest in a joint estate.  Bouvier.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

severance, n.
1 the act or an instance of severing.
2 a severed state.

Idiom

severance pay an amount paid to an employee on the early termination of a contract.

THESAURUS

severance

abscission, alteration, amputation, analysis, anatomization, atomization, butchering, change, chopping, clearance, cleavage, cutting, demarcation, deportation, desynonymization, detachment, dichotomy, differencing, differentiation, discard, discrimination, disequalization, disjunction, disposal, disposition, distinction, distinguishment, diversification, division, ejection, elimination, enucleation, eradication, excision, exile, expatriation, expulsion, fission, individualization, individuation, laceration, liquidation, modification, mutilation, ostracism, outlawing, outlawry, particularization, personalization, purge, removal, rending, resection, riddance, ripping, scission, section, segregation, separation, severalization, slashing, slicing, specialization, splitting, surgery, suspension, tearing, variation, withdrawal

ROGET THESAURUS

severance

Disjunction

N disjunction, disconnection, disunity, disunion, disassociation, disengagement, discontinuity, abjunction, cataclasm, inconnection, abstraction, abstractedness, isolation, insularity, insulation, oasis, island, separateness, severalty, disjecta membra, dispersion, apportionment, separation, parting, circumcision, detachment, segregation, divorce, sejunction, seposition, diduction, diremption, discerption, elision, caesura, break, fracture, division, subdivision, rupture, compartition, dismemberment, dislocation, luxation, severance, disseverance, scission, rescission, abscission, laceration, dilaceration, disruption, abruption, avulsion, divulsion, section, resection, cleavage, fission, partibility, separability, fissure, breach, rent, split, rift, crack, slit, incision, dissection anatomy, decomposition, cutting instrument, buzzsaw, circular saw, rip saw, separatist, disjoined, discontinuous, multipartite, abstract, disjunctive, secant, isolated, insular, separate, disparate, discrete, apart, asunder, far between, loose, free, unattached, unannexed, unassociated, unconnected, distinct, adrift, straggling, rift, reft, scissile, divisible, discerptible, partible, separable, separately, one by one, severally, apart, adrift, asunder, in twain, in the abstract, abstractedly.