graduate

American  

[graj-oo-it, -ayt, graj-oo-ayt] / ˈgrædʒ u ɪt, -ˌeɪt, ˈgrædʒ uˌeɪt /

noun

• graduates
  plural

1. a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.

2. a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.

3. a graduated cylinder, used for measuring.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree.

   graduate courses in business; a graduate student.

2. having an academic degree or diploma.

   a graduate engineer.

verb (used without object)

• graduates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graduated,
  past participle,  past
• graduating
  present participle

1. to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often followed byfrom ).

   She graduated from college in 1985.

2. to pass by degrees; change gradually.

verb (used with object)

• graduates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• graduated,
  past participle,  past
• graduating
  present participle

1. to confer a degree upon, or to grant a diploma to, at the close of a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.

   Cornell graduated eighty students with honors.

2. Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from.

   She graduated college in 1950.

3. to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.

4. to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.

graduate British  

noun

1. 1. a person who has been awarded a first degree from a university or college

   2. ( as modifier )

      a graduate profession

2. a student who has completed a course of studies at a high school and received a diploma

3. a container, such as a flask, marked to indicate its capacity

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verb

1. to receive or cause to receive a degree or diploma

2. (tr) to confer a degree, diploma, etc upon

3. (tr) to mark (a thermometer, flask, etc) with units of measurement; calibrate

4. (tr) to arrange or sort into groups according to type, quality, etc

5. to change by degrees (from something to something else)

Usage

In the sense “to receive a degree or diploma” graduate followed by from is the most common construction today: Her daughter graduated from Yale in 1981. The passive form was graduated from, formerly insisted upon as the only correct pattern, has decreased in use and occurs infrequently today: My husband was graduated from West Point last year. Even though it is condemned by some as nonstandard, the use of graduate as a transitive verb meaning “to receive a degree or diploma from” is increasing in frequency in both speech and writing: The twins graduated high school in 1974.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• graduator
  noun
• nongraduate
  noun
• supergraduate
  noun
• ungraduating
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• graduates
  plural

Participles

• graduating
  present
• graduated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• graduate
  simple
• graduates
  simple
• have graduated
  perfect
• has graduated
  perfect
• am graduating
  progressive
• are graduating
  progressive
• is graduating
  progressive
• have been graduating
  perfect progressive
• has been graduating
  perfect progressive

Past

• graduated
  simple
• had graduated
  perfect
• was graduating
  progressive
• were graduating
  progressive
• had been graduating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will graduate
  simple
• will have graduated
  perfect
• will be graduating
  progressive
• will have been graduating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of graduate

1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin graduātus (past participle of graduāre ), equivalent to grad ( us ) grade, step + -u- thematic vowel + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

To graduate means to successfully complete your schooling, to become "a graduate." When you graduate from high school, you become a high school graduate and congratulations are in order. A graduate is someone who has received a degree from a school. As a verb graduate refers to the act of receiving this degree “I plan to graduate from college in the spring,” or the act of giving a degree “I want to graduate all of my students.” In a scientific sense, graduate can mean to calibrate for fine adjustments. To make a thermometer, you have to graduate it by degrees so it displays a range of temperatures.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

graduate graduates graduated graduating

In it, Tinoco’s sister wrote that Abigail was a graduate of Downey High School and an athlete on the track and cross-country teams before she attended UCLA.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

“If they’re making $1 more than the average high-school graduate that’s probably not enough to pay back their student loans. It’s a starting point, it’s not where we want to end up.”

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

The Cambridge University graduate took aim at tech industry culture, saying companies "run on a startup mindset: move fast, break things, fix them later."

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

“Many of them are now ready to graduate in a higher price point and more extravagant design,” she added.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

A search party of graduate students found him hours later, wandering in the woods in the outskirts of Austin.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Requiring that graduates of college degree programs earn more than someone with a high-school diploma is a relatively low floor, Matsudaira said.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

Others, like Chroman and Hoke, are recent college graduates with math and quant backgrounds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026

More than 1,300 graduates have signed a letter calling on the university to take "swift and expansive" action after the allegations came back to light.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

That numbers-backed thinking means engineers, software developers or entrepreneurs might all find it more appealing than humanities graduates, Lechterman said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

Evangelicals are now increasingly likely to be college graduates and in the top income brackets.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

The project was initiated by former Jackson School of Geosciences graduate student Andrew Parisi, who graduated in 2018 and has since passed away.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 4, 2026

Fiona Ma played sports, was a Girl Scout — “a top cookie seller,” she boasts on her campaign website — and graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Dean says her daughter, who graduated this past June, has stabilized on medications, but she is “forever changed.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026

For the minister behind the Department for Infrastructure reforms, Sinn Féin's Liz Kimmins, graduated driver licensing is about reducing the risks faced by those getting behind the wheel for the first time.

From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026

But it all changed when I graduated from sixth grade and enrolled in a junior high that accommodated several different elementary schools.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

"We are glad that Rooppur is known to the world, and my friends and I hope that we will work at the plant after graduating from engineering schools," he added.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

He went back to law school at night while working full time, graduating as valedictorian from the University of Miami.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

He is the son of refugees who fled communist Vietnam and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, graduating from Rosemead High School.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026

Neely, 30, has had several full-time jobs since graduating in 2021.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

After graduating, he continued to hang around the Washington shell house, informally advising students and coaches and generally helping out.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• alum
• alumna
• alumnus
• doctor
• grad
• recipient