I. POSITIONS AND STATES
/əpɑ:(r)t/
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
Note: In addition to the uses shown below, 'apart' is used in phrasal verbs such as ‘grow apart’ and ‘take apart’.
1.
When people or things are apart , they are some distance from each other.
He was standing a bit apart from the rest of us, watching us...
Ray and sister Renee lived just 25 miles apart from each other.
...regions that were too far apart to have any way of knowing about each other...
ADV : ADV after v , oft ADV from n
2.
If two people or things move apart or are pulled apart , they move away from each other.
John and Isabelle moved apart, back into the sun...
He tried in vain to keep the two dogs apart before the neighbour intervened.
ADV : ADV after v
3.
If two people are apart , they are no longer living together or spending time together, either permanently or just for a short time.
It was the first time Jane and I had been apart for more than a few days...
Mum and Dad live apart.
ADV : be ADV , ADV after v
4.
If you take something apart , you separate it into the pieces that it is made of. If it comes or falls apart , its parts separate from each other.
When the clock stopped he took it apart to find out what was wrong...
Many school buildings are unsafe, and some are falling apart.
ADV : ADV after v
5.
If something such as an organization or relationship falls apart , or if something tears it apart , it can no longer continue because it has serious difficulties.
Any manager knows that his company will start falling apart if his attention wanders...
ADV : ADV after v
6.
If something sets someone or something apart , it makes them different from other people or things.
What really sets Mr Thaksin apart is that he comes from northern Thailand...
ADV : ADV after v , n ADV
7.
If people or groups are a long way apart on a particular topic or issue, they have completely different views and disagree about it.
Their concept of a performance and our concept were miles apart.
ADJ : v-link amount ADJ , oft ADJ on n
8.
If you can’t tell two people or things apart , they look exactly the same to you.
I can still only tell Mark and Dave apart by the colour of their shoes!
PHRASE : V inflects , usu with brd-neg
II. INDICATING EXCEPTIONS AND FOCUSING
/əpɑ:(r)t/
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
You use apart from when you are making an exception to a general statement.
She was the only British competitor apart from Richard Meade.
PREP-PHRASE
2.
You use apart when you are making an exception to a general statement.
This was, New York apart, the first American city I had ever been in where people actually lived downtown.
= excepted
ADV : n ADV
3.
You use apart from to indicate that you are aware of one aspect of a situation, but that you are going to focus on another aspect.
Illiteracy threatens Britain’s industrial performance. But, quite apart from that, the individual who can’t read or write is unlikely to get a job...
PREP-PHRASE