graduate

American  

[graj-oo-it, -eyt, graj-oo-eyt] / ˈgrædʒ u ɪt, -ˌeɪt, ˈgrædʒ uˌeɪt /

noun

• graduates
  plural

1. a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.

2. a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.

3. a graduated cylinder, used for measuring.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree.

   graduate courses in business; a graduate student.

2. having an academic degree or diploma.

   a graduate engineer.

verb (used without object)

• graduates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graduated,
  past participle,  past
• graduating
  present participle

1. to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often followed byfrom ).

   She graduated from college in 1985.

2. to pass by degrees; change gradually.

verb (used with object)

• graduates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graduated,
  past participle,  past
• graduating
  present participle

1. to confer a degree upon, or to grant a diploma to, at the close of a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.

   Cornell graduated eighty students with honors.

2. Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from.

   She graduated college in 1950.

3. to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.

4. to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.

graduate British  

noun

1. 1. a person who has been awarded a first degree from a university or college

   2. ( as modifier )

      a graduate profession

2. a student who has completed a course of studies at a high school and received a diploma

3. a container, such as a flask, marked to indicate its capacity

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verb

1. to receive or cause to receive a degree or diploma

2. (tr) to confer a degree, diploma, etc upon

3. (tr) to mark (a thermometer, flask, etc) with units of measurement; calibrate

4. (tr) to arrange or sort into groups according to type, quality, etc

5. to change by degrees (from something to something else)

Usage

In the sense “to receive a degree or diploma” graduate followed by from is the most common construction today: Her daughter graduated from Yale in 1981. The passive form was graduated from, formerly insisted upon as the only correct pattern, has decreased in use and occurs infrequently today: My husband was graduated from West Point last year. Even though it is condemned by some as nonstandard, the use of graduate as a transitive verb meaning “to receive a degree or diploma from” is increasing in frequency in both speech and writing: The twins graduated high school in 1974.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• graduator
  noun
• nongraduate
  noun
• supergraduate
  noun
• ungraduating
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• graduates
  plural

Participles

• graduating
  present
• graduated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• graduate
  simple
• graduates
  simple
• have graduated
  perfect
• has graduated
  perfect
• am graduating
  progressive
• are graduating
  progressive
• is graduating
  progressive
• have been graduating
  perfect progressive
• has been graduating
  perfect progressive

Past

• graduated
  simple
• had graduated
  perfect
• was graduating
  progressive
• were graduating
  progressive
• had been graduating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will graduate
  simple
• will have graduated
  perfect
• will be graduating
  progressive
• will have been graduating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of graduate

1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin graduātus (past participle of graduāre ), equivalent to grad ( us ) grade, step + -u- thematic vowel + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

To graduate means to successfully complete your schooling, to become "a graduate." When you graduate from high school, you become a high school graduate and congratulations are in order. A graduate is someone who has received a degree from a school. As a verb graduate refers to the act of receiving this degree “I plan to graduate from college in the spring,” or the act of giving a degree “I want to graduate all of my students.” In a scientific sense, graduate can mean to calibrate for fine adjustments. To make a thermometer, you have to graduate it by degrees so it displays a range of temperatures.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

graduate graduates graduated graduating

Moreno had sons graduate from Servite in 1997 and 1999.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026

Teirab, a former Marine and a Harvard Law graduate who’d run unsuccessfully for Congress as a Republican, responded with a blunt reality check.

From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026

It’s a remarkable rise for a woman who didn’t graduate from college, had a previous brief marriage, at age 20, to a man more than 40 years older and once declared bankruptcy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Belk's interest in neuroscience began while she was a graduate student in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford Humanities and Sciences.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 14, 2026

Of course he doesn’t know that my father has multiple graduate degrees.

From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai

Peter Thiel’s $250,000 fellowship for dropouts who start ventures is more competitive than ever since its 2011 launch, and Palantir Technologies has started a similar program for high-school graduates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

A high-school class of 200 might see 30 graduates stick around.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 16, 2026

Recent graduates and Americans between 22 and 27 face an unemployment rate of 5.7% and 7.2%, respectively.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026

"We believe that now is the time to create a system that is fair and that unshackles millions of graduates from mountains of student loan debt," he said.

From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026

Minerva graduates tomorrow and is moving to Monte Cristi to be with Manolo.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

He graduated from the lesser-known Officers Training School.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026

If a player from a participating U.S. lottery wins the jackpot, they may choose to receive the prize as an annuity, paid in 30 graduated payments over 29 years, or as a lump-sum payment.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

He filled it out and was accepted, becoming the first in his family to attend college, and graduated with degrees in law and economics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026

They began their studies in economics at Rome's Sapienza University in November 2025, having graduated high school in Gaza with scores above 99 percent.

From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026

In the midst of this, Joylette had graduated from Hampton with a degree in mathematics in 1962—just a few months after John Glenn took flight.

From "Reaching for the Moon" by Katherine Johnson

She entered politics soon after graduating and in June 2020 became an assistant White House press secretary.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

After graduating from Huntington Park High School, he earned a master’s in history from San José State University.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Lee then focused on graduating early, packing his remaining coursework into two dense semesters — taking seven classes during one of them.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

With his last Ph.D. students graduating, this was a natural moment for Tsimerman to make a move of his own.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026

After graduating from college, he moved to France knowing only the phrase "Do you speak French?"—a question guaranteed to get you nowhere unless you also speak the language.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Related Words

• alum
• alumna
• alumnus
• doctor
• grad
• recipient