divorce vs separate

divorce

verb
  • To separate something that was connected. 

  • To legally dissolve a marriage between two people. 

  • To end one's own marriage to (a person) in this way. 

  • To obtain a legal divorce. 

noun
  • The legal dissolution of a marriage. 

  • A separation of connected things. 

  • The separation of a bonded pair of animals. 

separate

verb
  • To divide (a thing) into separate parts. 

  • To disunite from a group or mass; to disconnect. 

  • To cause (things or people) to be separate. 

  • To divide itself into separate pieces or substances. 

noun
  • A printing of an article from a periodical as its own distinct publication and distributed independently, often with different page numbers. 

  • Anything that is sold by itself, especially articles of clothing such as blouses, skirts, jackets, and pants. 

adj
  • Apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else). 

  • Not together (with); not united (to). 

How often have the words divorce and separate occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )