From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsecessionse‧ces‧sion /sɪˈseʃən/ noun [countable, uncountable] when a country or state officially stops being part of another country and becomes independent OPP accession a vote in favor of secessionsecession from Croatia’s secession from Yugoslavia
Examples from the Corpus
secession• It was the lack of democracy and equality which impelled the oppressed to fight for secession.• Other officials expressed concern that the proposed mechanism might actually prove to make secession impossible in practice.• This time he can not just send in the army to take out Podgorica, because there is no secession under way.• The daily papers teemed with the dreary records of secession...• The representatives of national groups increasingly demanded the right of autonomy, of self-government, if not outright secession.• More recently, the threat of Quebec's secession confronted the country with the very real possibility of political breakup.• In the south the enforcement of a no-fly zone by western aircraft has raised the possibility of a Shia secession.• But some staff members have at one point expressed sympathy for a Valley secession. 