graduate
Americannoun
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a person who has received a degree or diploma on completing a course of study, as in a university, college, or school.
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a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.
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a graduated cylinder, used for measuring.
adjective
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of, relating to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree.
graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
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having an academic degree or diploma.
a graduate engineer.
verb (used without object)
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to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often followed byfrom ).
She graduated from college in 1985.
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to pass by degrees; change gradually.
verb (used with object)
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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.
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Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from.
She graduated college in 1950.
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to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.
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to divide into or mark with degrees or other divisions, as the scale of a thermometer.
noun
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a person who has been awarded a first degree from a university or college
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( as modifier )
a graduate profession
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a student who has completed a course of studies at a high school and received a diploma
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a container, such as a flask, marked to indicate its capacity
verb
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to receive or cause to receive a degree or diploma
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(tr) to confer a degree, diploma, etc upon
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(tr) to mark (a thermometer, flask, etc) with units of measurement; calibrate
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(tr) to arrange or sort into groups according to type, quality, etc
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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
- graduator noun
- nongraduate noun
- supergraduate noun
- ungraduating adjective
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
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.
Some book clubs sip stoic glasses of water, like they’re in a graduate school seminar, waiting for me to begin.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
She earned an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering and a graduate degree in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then co-founded iRobot in 1990 with two MIT colleagues.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 9, 2026
Here’s how I outsmarted lifestyle creep: I knew I couldn’t trust myself with extra income when I landed my first job out of graduate school.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 7, 2026
Concannon is interning this semester at the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office and is set to graduate this spring.
From Slate • Apr. 6, 2026
I had studied Sweden’s progressive approach to the rehabilitation of criminal offenders as a graduate student and had long marveled at how focused on recovery their system appeared.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
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.
