varsity
Americannoun
-
varsities
plural
-
any first-string team, especially in sports, that represents a school, college, university, or the like.
He is on the varsity in tennis and in debating.
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Chiefly British Informal. university.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of varsity
1840–50; compare versity university, in 17th century; pronunciation probably preserves historical outcome of Middle English ĕr, as in varmint
Compare meaning
How does varsity compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
The word varsity identifies the starting team in a sport at a college or university. You have to be good to make varsity. At many schools, sports are a big deal. Thousands of people flock to college football and basketball games, plus other sports. The members of the starting team are varsity players. Varsity players are the best players: that’s why they start, and they usually finish the game too. It can take a while for a player to make varsity status.
Vocabulary lists containing varsity
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"High School Football"
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The Crossover
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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.
See Examples For:
And this deal covers all 36 of OSU’s varsity sports.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
Plenty of other readers also made the case that real rivalries came with varsity jackets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
He spent three years on the junior varsity team waiting and grinding before getting his chance to start on varsity this season.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
He was with the program for 12 years prior, seven as a varsity assistant under Avery Drost.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2026
He was a tall man, especially for an Asian: six feet, lean and rangy, with the build of a basketball player—and indeed, he had played starting forward for Shaker’s varsity team back in the sixties.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
The 1969 team was 2-4, a respectable enough record, though five opponents were the junior varsities of small colleges like Wheaton and Valparaiso.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2011
In 1929 and 1930 he had been on losing Yale varsities.
From Time Magazine Archive
Last week, after Washington's junior varsity and freshmen had beaten the East's best, seven varsities pulled out on the calm Hudson to row four miles down stream.
From Time Magazine Archive
And they don't get the pick of the varsities either: the standard keeps going down.
From Years of Plenty by Ivor Brown
"And the varsities won't change till public opinion blows them to bits," added Martin.
From Years of Plenty by Ivor Brown
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.
