graduate

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
  2. A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.
  3. A person who is recognized as having completed any level of education.
  4. A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.
adj
  1. graduated, arranged by degrees
  2. holding an academic degree
  3. relating to an academic degree
verb
  1. To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
  2. To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
  3. To certify (a student) as having earned a degree
  4. To mark (something) with degrees; to divide into regular steps or intervals, as the scale of a thermometer, a scheme of punishment or rewards, etc.
  5. To change gradually.
  6. To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.
  7. To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
  8. To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
  9. To approve (a feature) for general release.
  10. Of an idol: to exit a group; or of a virtual YouTuber, to leave a management agency; usually accompanied with "graduation ceremony" send-offs, increased focus on the leaving member, and the like.

Pronunciation

/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuət/ /ˈɡɹædjuət/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-graduate (noun).wav grăjʹo͞o-ĭt /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuɪt/ /ˈɡɹædjueɪt/ /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-graduate (verb).wav grăjʹo͞o-āt

Word forms

graduate graduates more graduate most graduate graduating graduated

Etymology

From Middle English graduat(e) (“(noun) a graduate of a university; (adjective) graduate, having graduated”, also used as the past participle of graduaten (“to graduate”)), borrowed from Medieval Latin graduātus (“graduated, graduate”), perfect passive participle of graduō (“to graduate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from gradus (“step”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). The noun is originally derived within Latin from the adjective via substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix). Sense 10 of the verb, relating to Japanese entertainment, is a semantic loan from Japanese 卒業 (sotsugyō).

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.