cum laude

American

[koom lou-dey, -duh, -dee, kuhm law-dee] / kʊm ˈlaʊ deɪ, -də, -di, kʌm ˈlɔ di /

adverb

with honor: used in diplomas to grant the lowest of three special honors for grades above the average.

cum laude British

/ kʊm ˈlaʊdeɪ, kʌm ˈlɔːdɪ /

adverb

with praise: the lowest of three designations for above-average achievement in examinations Compare magna cum laude summa cum laude

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of cum laude

1890–95, < Latin: with praise

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:

cum laude

He graduated summa cum laude from New York University in 1948, and earned a master’s in economics two years later and a Ph.D in economics in 1977.

From Barron's ● Jun. 22, 2026

The plan also suggests getting rid of GPA as an internal metric, instead using percentile rank to calculate honors like cum laude recognition.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

She enrolled in classes at Emory at 16 and then transferred to Barnard where she majored in creative writing, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 31, 2026

Macdonald was a straight-A student in high school and graduated summa cum laude with a finance degree from the University of Georgia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 26, 2026

At Penn State he revealed himself to be a brilliant student, graduating summa cum laude.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023