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

See Examples For:

Ivy League

“Unlike private Ivy League colleges, public universities must strive to serve all sectors of the state and all segments of the population,” he told me.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

This increase in density is similar to what might be seen in other elite networks, such as graduating from an Ivy League school.

From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026

“Race cars and rockets are not that dissimilar,” Riley, 49 years old, once told an interviewer for the Ivy League school’s magazine.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

Princeton University was among the last of the Ivy League schools to divest from publicly traded fossil fuel companies in its endowment.

From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026

I knew the relaxed patois of the South Side and the high-minded diction of the Ivy League, and now on top of that I spoke Lawyer, too.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama