faculty

[fak-uhl-tee]

noun

plural

faculties 

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.

faculty

/ 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

Other Word Forms

• interfaculty noun
• profaculty adjective
• underfaculty noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of faculty¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of faculty¹

C14 (in the sense: department of learning): from Latin facultās capability; related to Latin facilis easy

Synonym Study

See ability.

Example Sentences

Three years later, at least 100 faculty members at the medical school took pay cuts and an undisclosed number were dismissed as part of a plan to address an $11-million deficit.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

They traveled with her to Cambridge, Mass., when she and her husband, Lawrence Bobo, accepted faculty positions at Harvard in 1998.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

By the time freshmen arrived in September with their minifridges and extra-long sheets, disgruntled faculty and graduate students had printed up flyers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Records recently obtained from the University of Arizona show the school’s faculty threw in with pro-Palestinian protesters in the months after Oct.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The faculty presented the formal proposal to the university’s senior management in September 2020.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• department 
• institute 
• personnel 
• staff 
• university