faculty

American  

[fak-uhl-tee] / ˈfæk əl ti /

noun

faculties plural

1. an ability, natural or acquired, for a particular kind of action.

   a faculty for making friends easily.

   Synonyms:

   skill, potential, knack, aptitude, capacity

2. one of the powers of the mind, as memory, reason, or speech.

   Though very sick, he is in full possession of all his faculties.

3. an inherent capability of the body.

   the faculties of sight and hearing.

4. exceptional ability or aptitude.

   a president with a faculty for management.

5. Education.

   1. the entire teaching and administrative force of a university, college, or school.

   2. one of the departments of learning, as theology, medicine, or law, in a university.

   3. the teaching body, sometimes with the students, in any of these departments.

6. the members of a learned profession.

   the medical faculty.

7. a power or privilege conferred by the state, a superior, etc..

   The police were given the faculty to search the building.

8. Ecclesiastical. a dispensation, license, or authorization.

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faculty British  

/ ˈfækəltɪ /

noun

1. one of the inherent powers of the mind or body, such as reason, memory, sight, or hearing

2. any ability or power, whether acquired or inherent

3. a conferred power or right

4. 1. a department within a university or college devoted to a particular branch of knowledge

   2. the staff of such a department

   3. all the teaching staff at a university, college, school, etc

5. all members of a learned profession

6. archaic occupation

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Synonym Usage

See ability.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• interfaculty
  noun
• underfaculty
  noun
• profaculty
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• faculties
  plural

Etymology

Origin of faculty

1350–1400; Middle English faculte < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin facultāt- (stem of facultās ) ability, power, equivalent to facil ( is ) easy ( see facile) + -tāt- -ty ²; cf. facility

Explanation

A faculty refers to any of your mental or physical abilities. If you lose your faculties, you are powerless. The faculty of a school is comprised of the people who work there. Lose them, and you have a different kind of problem. Faculty comes from the Old French word faculté, which means “skill, accomplishment, or learning.” You may have great faculties of memory, sight, mobility, charm, math, and musicality, but, as Beethoven was in the end, be robbed of your faculty of hearing. Any aptitude or ability — inborn or learned — that you have is a faculty. Also, if you go to school, your teachers make up the faculty of that school.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

faculty faculties

Anguiano said faculty would lead the work “while the board deepens its own understanding of the broader questions at hand.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

Some faculty argued the university was moving too slowly.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026

A growing group of faculty, students and alumni—including Yale Law grad Blumenthal—are urging the university’s leaders to resist making a settlement.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Now she is besieged by an array of faculty, unions and deans.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Volpe has had to endure his school district’s year-to-year tumult just like the rest of his faculty colleagues.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

Murray said there is uncertainty around what faculties or courses could be affected by job losses but that the students' union is particularly concerned for PhD students who rely on supervisory teams.

From BBC ● May 17, 2026

Some 160 works show how he used his creative faculties as a survival device and drew on his Japanese education throughout his life.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 15, 2026

No adult treats any other adult that way unless they’ve lost their mental faculties or never had them.

From Salon ● Nov. 21, 2025

She now wants to do Pilates after work, and the long hours she spends working and learning legalese have kept her mental faculties in check.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024

No obviously bad effects were noticed from these ill-advised unions, but one or two old maids or gardener boys marked a weakening of faculties and a disposition toward eccentricity in some of the children.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

Related Words

• department
• institute
• personnel
• staff
• university