graduate
Americannoun
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graduates
plural
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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.
-
a student who holds the bachelor's or the first professional degree and is studying for an advanced degree.
-
a graduated cylinder, used for measuring.
adjective
-
of, relating to, or involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree.
graduate courses in business; a graduate student.
-
having an academic degree or diploma.
a graduate engineer.
verb (used without object)
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graduates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
graduated,
past participle, past
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graduating
present participle
-
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)
-
graduates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
graduated,
past participle, past
-
graduating
present participle
-
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
-
-
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
-
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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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graduatesimple
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graduatessimple
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have graduatedperfect
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has graduatedperfect
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am graduatingprogressive
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are graduatingprogressive
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is graduatingprogressive
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have been graduatingperfect progressive
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has been graduatingperfect progressive
Past
-
graduatedsimple
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had graduatedperfect
-
was graduatingprogressive
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were graduatingprogressive
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had been graduatingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing graduate
A Graduation Lexicon
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Education and Academics, List 1
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for May 22–May 28, 2021
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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:
According to Kenneth Geisert, a graduate student in NC State's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and lead author of the study, this uncertainty has made it difficult to develop appropriate pest control strategies.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 6, 2026
Linebaugh said he’s going to give screenwriting his all, and if it doesn’t work out, he will consider graduate school or entertainment law.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
He is a graduate of Yale University, where he received a bachelor's and master's degree in history.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026
Recent university graduate Lotte Underwood is a public relations executive with a twist - she spends more time using AI than actually doing PR.
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
“I have more than enough credits to graduate already. I have more than enough money.”
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
Student loan repayments are tied to earnings, so the more you earn, the more you repay every month - and graduates generally go on to earn more than non-graduates.
From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026
The 22-year-old cinema and media studies student graduates in December, and she’s admittedly “a little freaked out” by what awaits her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
"We see our graduates as not filling administrative roles, but actually adding value to the organisation in a different way."
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
And economists studying recent college graduates, the group supposedly first in line for replacement, found that their unemployment did not spike this summer.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
When it hit three hundred, one of Flom’s partners—Morris Kramer—came to him and said that he felt guilty about bringing in young law school graduates.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
She then committed to a full-time, accelerated flight-school program and graduated at 20 with a commercial pilot’s license.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2026
In an open letter to colleagues last week, Lockhart said forcing O'Neill from office was the "only one credible option" and any kind of "graduated response" would be "insulting to those who have trusted us".
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
John graduated in 2026 from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, where he served as managing editor of Annenberg Media and a producer for Annenberg Radio News.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2026
Rafael Nolasco grew up in East Los Angeles, graduated from East Los Angeles College and still lives in the area.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 31, 2026
“By the time I graduated from high school there were eleven of us.”
From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago
Before graduating from Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, she scored 67 goals and had 25 assists as a junior, leading her team to a 25-0 season and a state championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026
Bobby Pulido is graduating from quinceañera gigs to the Capitol.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2026
Since graduating, she had worked as a product manager at an industrial technology company.
From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026
Harbach, 50, a native of Racine, Wis., wrote “The Art of Fielding” over a decade after graduating from Harvard University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
In June 1997, a few weeks after graduating from Smith, Luma gave her parents the news by telephone: she was staying in the United States—not for a little while, but forever.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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