🏢 Not part of department 🏛️ Independent organization

nondepartmental

7.1

Not part of any specific department in an organization

adjective
/ˌnɒndɪˈpɑːrtˈmɛntəl/

: no departamental

For the project, we sought nondepartmental expertise to ensure diverse viewpoints were represented.

Examples

During the Cold War, the CIA provided nondepartmental assessments with which departmental assessments could be compared.

Academic text (1994)
Eliminating the community's chief source of nondepartmental analysis would weaken estimates.

Academic text (1994)
The report offered nondepartmental insights that helped all teams understand the broader implications of the policy.
Her research included nondepartmental perspectives that highlighted issues overlooked by specific departments.

Synonyms

unaffiliated

vsnondepartmental

15 6.6

Not officially connected to any group or organization

applies only to those outside a specific internal division within an organization

nonaffiliated

vsnondepartmental

5.9

Not connected to any group, organization, or political party

applies only to those outside a specific internal division within an organization

Antonyms

departmental

19 4.1

About a part of a company or university that has its own work

How Departmental

departmental

19 4.1

interdepartmental

2 5.8

nondepartmental

7.1

Surface Forms

nondepartmental positive

Morphology

nondepartmental = departmental (transparent) = non + department + al

Formed by the productive prefix 'non-' added to the adjective 'departmental', yielding the straightforward negated meaning.

Etymology

Nondepartmental is made from non- ('not') and department ('a part of an organization'), so it means 'not part of a department'. That's why we call a program or agency nondepartmental when it does not belong to any single department.