diploma
Americannoun
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a document given by an educational institution conferring a degree on a person or certifying that the person has satisfactorily completed a course of study.
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a document conferring some honor, privilege, or power.
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a public or official document, especially one of historical interest.
a diploma from Carolingian times.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a document conferring a qualification, recording success in examinations or successful completion of a course of study
-
an official document that confers an honour or privilege
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of diploma
1635–45; < Latin diplōma a letter of recommendation, an official document < Greek díplōma a letter folded double, equivalent to diplō-, variant stem of diploûn to double (derivative of diplóos; see diplo-) + -ma suffix of result
Explanation
A diploma is a document people receive when they graduate from a school or program. It is a symbol of academic success. You often see framed diplomas displayed in a doctor's office. Are you working toward a diploma? Then you must be in school. People receive high school and college diplomas, which they usually receive during a graduation ceremony. You could also get a diploma for a shorter series of classes in something like pottery, skydiving, or marksmanship. Even a dog could get a diploma for passing obedience school. Any time someone gets a diploma, you can be sure they finished a course or program of learning.
Vocabulary lists containing diploma
A Graduation Lexicon
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Education and Academics, List 1
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocabulary for June 3–June 9, 2023
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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:
She said she planned to enroll international students who want to learn English online and earn an American high school diploma.
From Salon ● Jul. 27, 2026
Three years ago, Alexandra Eala was presented with her graduation diploma from the Rafael Nadal tennis academy by Iga Swiatek.
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
Autism therapy, or applied behavior analysis, or ABA, is commonly delivered by behavior technicians, who in many states need little more than a high-school diploma and often earn as little as $20 an hour.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Campbell is a keen botanist and has a diploma from the Royal Horticultural Society; Robertson has started learning how to mend clothes and is an avid music video fan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
I just can’t wait to see the look on my mom’s face as I walk down the aisle and receive my diploma.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
As the class of 2026 looks toward the future after securing their diplomas, some are preparing to move from their dorm room back to their childhood bedroom.
From MarketWatch ● May 21, 2026
When we attend a graduation ceremony at the slick and freshly painted Choithram International School, where she is the keynote speaker, girls stop to chat with her as they collect their diplomas.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
After all, if a college degree is no longer a sure path to a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, high school diplomas are worth even less.
From Salon ● May 4, 2026
When the tech industry executive met with his son’s guidance counselor, the school confirmed that it rarely withheld diplomas from chronically absent pupils, lest these students suffer later in life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
They’re running a makeshift school for the younger kids, but as of yet there is no Mobius High giving out diplomas.
From "Internment" by Samira Ahmed
A Rubricken Bock, or collection of municipal diplomata testifies to another branch of his useful activities.
From Bartholomew Sastrow Being the Memoirs of a German Burgomaster by Sastrow, Bartholomew
The next day a man who professed bone-setting and doctoring, albeit not diplomaed, asked me to go with him and act as interpreter to a German patient who had a broken thigh.
From Memoirs by Leland, Charles Godfrey
They have their eyes open, and they know political economy better than our diplomaed professors.
From Sophisms of the Protectionists by White, Horace
He could drive really well, too; as for belief in himself, after six months' apprenticeship in a garage he was prepared to vivisect a six-cylinder engine with the confidence of a diplomaed bachelor of engineering.
From Three Elephant Power and Other Stories by Paterson, A. B. (Andrew Barton)
Ministers, who constitute the third item of the diplomaed triad, are not free from the universal mania, and as writing sermons is not coining money, the plantations are like the vocative in Latin pronouns.
From The South-West By a Yankee. In Two Volumes. Volume 2 by Ingraham, Jonathon Holt
Miss Elbury was of the older generation of governesses, motherly, kind, but rather prim and precise, the accomplished element being supplied with diplomaed foreigners, who, since Lady Phyllis's failure in health, had been dispensed with.
From Beechcroft at Rockstone by Yonge, Charlotte Mary
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.
