point of departure

noun

"point-of-departure" is a 16-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“point of departure” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
18
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Synonym of starting point.

Corpus desk

Index EN-point-of-departure · point of departure · English

point of departure · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 18 letters
  • VOW-7 7 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "P" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for point of departure
PropertyValue
Headwordpoint of departure
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters18
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “point of departure” in English

point of departurefalls outside the top-100,000 ranked English words, the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

point of departure is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

point of departure has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is point of departure, spelled P-O-I-N-T- -O-F- -D-E-P-A-R-T-U-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Synonym of starting point.
  2. 2
    of abstract processes that can be compared to a voyage: initial circumstances. Frequent collocations include, but are not limited to
  3. 3
    a dosage level at which additional administration of an agent significantly loses its efficacy

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how point of departure appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. […] the point of departure is Hong Kong International Airport.
  2. […] so “going back to the way things were” is not a useful point of departure.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "point of departure"?
"point of departure" is spelled P-O-I-N-T- -O-F- -D-E-P-A-R-T-U-R-E.
What does "point of departure" mean?
As a noun, "point of departure" means: Synonym of starting point.
What language does "point of departure" come from?
"point of departure" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list