Ivy League

American  

noun

1. a group of colleges and universities in the northeastern U.S., consisting of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown, having a reputation for high scholastic achievement and social prestige.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Ivy League colleges or their students and graduates.

Ivy League British  

noun

1. 1. a group of eight universities (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth College, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) that have similar academic and social prestige in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in Britain

   2. ( as modifier )

      an Ivy-League education

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Ivy League Cultural  

1. A group of eight old, distinguished colleges and universities in the East, known for their ivy-covered brick buildings. The members of the Ivy League are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities; Dartmouth College; and the University of Pennsylvania.

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Other Word Forms

• Ivy Leaguer
  noun

Etymology

Origin of Ivy League

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

"They're all very bright," he beams, pointing to each one in turn and listing their Ivy League achievements.

From BBC • May 27, 2026

You might think that getting an A grade at an Ivy League school would be hard.

From MarketWatch • May 26, 2026

In his earlier job at Boston Latin school, Emery sent along scores of young men to Ivy League schools.

From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026

Though most of the baseball world was returning to normalcy in the fall of 2020, the Ivy League remained dark.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 21, 2026

My father wants me to go to Yale, or maybe Princeton, but I swear, I wouldn't go to one of those Ivy League colleges, if I was dying, for God's sake.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger