undergraduate
Americannoun
adjective
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having the standing of an undergraduate.
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of, for, pertaining to, or characteristic of undergraduates.
noun
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Etymology
Origin of undergraduate
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How does undergraduate compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An undergraduate is a college or university student who's not a graduate student. After high school, you can become an undergraduate. Undergraduates are students of universities and colleges: they've graduated from high school and have been accepted to college, but they haven't graduated yet. If the under in undergraduate seems confusing, that's because there are also graduate students, students who have a college degree but are no longer undergraduates and are pursuing an advanced degree, like a Master's or Ph.D. Lots of people say being an undergraduate was one of the best times of their lives: it's an exciting thing to be.
Vocabulary lists containing undergraduate
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And Hilton announced a new brand, Undergraduate by Hilton, in a bid to open hotels in more college towns.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026
Undergraduate borrowing was already limited, and those caps will remain the same.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 12, 2026
Undergraduate students from California who entered in the fall of 2022 — the program’s first year — have paid a steady annual tuition of $13,104.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 19, 2025
Undergraduate private loans almost always require a co-signer, and with the parent’s debt-to-income ratio significantly increased by the previous Parent Plus borrowing, these loans may not be attainable.
From MarketWatch • Oct. 17, 2025
The Average Undergraduate will have been an average schoolboy, not afflicted with too great a love of classics or mathematics, and gifted, unfortunately, with a fine contempt for modern languages.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, November 1, 1890 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
