curriculum
Americannoun
-
curricula,
plural
-
curriculums
plural
-
the aggregate of courses of study given in a school, college, university, etc..
The school is adding more science courses to its curriculum.
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the regular or a particular course of study in a school, college, etc.
noun
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a course of study in one subject at a school or college
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a list of all the courses of study offered by a school or college
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any programme or plan of activities
Usage
Plural word for curriculum The plural form of curriculum can be either curricula or curriculums, although curricula is more commonly used. The plurals of several other singular words that end in -um are also formed in the same way, including memorandum/memoranda, and bacterium/bacteria. Irregular plurals that are formed like curricula derive directly from their original pluralization in Latin. However, the usual plural -s ending is often also acceptable for many of these terms, as in curriculums and memorandums.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of curriculum
First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin: “action of running, course of action, race, chariot,” equivalent to curr(ere) “to run” + -i- -i- + -culum -cule 2
Explanation
A curriculum is a set of courses designed to give expertise, like the shoemaking curriculum at Shoe U: Advanced Cutting, Hammering, and Stitching; History of the Heel; and A Cultural History of Walking. Curriculum comes from the Latin word for "running course," or "career," but when we talk about curriculum it's always about school. If you go to a school with a Liberal Arts curriculum, you'll get an education in the humanities with some science, but if you go to a technical school with a hard-core astrophysics curriculum, you probably won't have to take any courses on poetry.
Vocabulary lists containing curriculum
The Vocabulary of College
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Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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Schooled
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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:
Spies’ parents were educators, and while she was building her career as a comic, she worked as an eighth-grade drama teacher and developed a stand-up curriculum.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
They’ve popped up in barns and on farms, in strip malls between an antique shop and an ax-throwing business and in churches, where lighting and sound for worship services is part of the curriculum.
From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2026
As a result, Milburn says children should be introduced to the world of work much earlier in their school journey, with dedicated space in the curriculum to "broaden horizons".
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
As for the curriculum, many details are still being sorted out.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026
In the endless deliberations over desegregation, the board spent more time worrying about how the high school athletic programs might be affected than how the curriculum might be affected.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
It also codifies and tightens requirements for teacher training, K-3 reading curricula, screening and parental notification, while granting the Massachusetts Department of Education robust powers to enforce transparency and accountability.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Some say customers aren’t exactly paying for innovation, but rather for decades of familiarity on the educator side — along with textbooks that build the calculators into their curricula.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Licensing for film screenings at schools starts at $49, while corporate licensing for her films starts at $995; purchase of screening rights also comes with curricula to facilitate discussions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
The words “horsemanship” and “citizenship” appeared in schools’ curricula, along with — from a 1925 ad for King’s Military Academy in Highland Park — “gentlemanship.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
I know the answer to every question already, since I’ve studied the seventh- and eighth-grade curricula in Kunu Yaku.
From "The Queen of Water" by Laura Resau
Without meaningful time in the library, college degrees rarely produce the humanist individual their curriculums intend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 9, 2025
“People just don't know how our parents came here. It was never in any of our curriculums to know about this.”
From Salon ● May 20, 2024
Students stultified by scripted curriculums and endless test prep.
From New York Times ● Mar. 14, 2024
The school's head teacher said its curriculums were planned and audited following government guidelines.
From BBC ● Nov. 10, 2023
Study after study shows that the leanest curriculums are being offered in the highest-poverty areas, despite ample evidence that this is exactly the wrong thing to do.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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.
