university

English Online Dictionary. What means university‎? What does university mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English universite (“institution of higher learning, body of persons constituting a university”) from Anglo-Norman université, from Old French universitei, from Medieval Latin stem of universitas, in juridical and Late Latin "A number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc"; in Latin, "the whole, aggregate," from universus (“whole, entire”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /juːnɪˈvɜːsəti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /junɪˈvɚsəti/, /junɪˈvɚsɪti/
• Hyphenation: u‧ni‧ver‧si‧ty

Noun

university (countable and uncountable, plural universities)

2. Institution of higher education (typically accepting students from the age of about 17 or 18, depending on country, but in some exceptional cases able to take younger students) where subjects are studied and researched in depth and degrees are offered.
3. (obsolete) The entirety of a group; all members of a class.

Usage notes

• In western Europe, and later the United States, universities were typically founded by executive act (e.g. royal charter) and were generally relatively large (compared to colleges), offering postgraduate degrees in addition to undergraduate degrees. In other countries, this distinction is not made and any degree-granting institution is called a university.
• In the United States, Ireland, and the Philippines, students will sometimes say that they go to "the university" or to "a university", but they are far more likely to say they are going "to college", even if the institution they attend is a university. In the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and most other English-speaking countries, students go "to university (or uni)", without the article, if they are attending a school that grants bachelor's or postgraduate degrees.

Synonyms

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Tokelauan: Iunivehite

Translations

See also

• Wikiversity

References

• university on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Scots

Alternative forms

• varsity

Etymology

From Middle English universite, from Medieval Latin universitas.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈjunəvɛrsəti]

Noun

university (plural universities)

1. university