trivium

[triv-ee-uhm]

noun

1. (during the Middle Ages) the lower division of the seven liberal arts, comprising grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

trivium

/ ˈtrɪvɪəm /

noun

1. (in medieval learning) the lower division of the seven liberal arts, consisting of grammar, rhetoric, and logic Compare quadrivium

Word History and Origins

Origin of trivium¹

1795–1805; < Medieval Latin, special use of Latin trivium public place, literally, place where three roads meet. See trivial

Word History and Origins

Origin of trivium¹

C19: from Medieval Latin, from Latin: crossroads; see _trivial

Example Sentences

Apple frames these disciplines as modern equivalents to the Medieval trivium — an essential educational resource that makes a person a person.

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The grammar school curriculum consisted of grammar, logic, and rhetoric—a three-part system of knowledge called “the trivium” that was regarded as the foundation of learning.

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Progress in wisdom was to be obtained, so far as secular knowledge was concerned, by the “seven ascents of theoretical discipline,” i.e. the trivium and the quadrivium.

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He doubted "that the curriculum of any modern university shows so clear and generous a comprehension of what is meant by culture as this old trivium and quadrivium did."

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Here, he taught the trivium and quadrivium—grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, and arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy—the seven arts.

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