graduate

[ noun, adjective graj-oo-it, -eyt; verb graj-oo-eyt ]

/ noun, adjective ˈgrædʒ u ɪt, -ˌeɪt; verb ˈgrædʒ uˌeɪt /

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See synonyms for: graduate / graduated / graduating on Thesaurus.com

noun

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), grad·u·at·ed, grad·u·at·ing.

to receive a degree or diploma on completing a course of study (often followed by from): She graduated from college in 1985.

to pass by degrees; change gradually.

verb (used with object), grad·u·at·ed, grad·u·at·ing.

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.

Informal. to receive a degree or diploma from: She graduated college in 1950.

to arrange in grades or gradations; establish gradation in.

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

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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-ate¹

usage note for graduate

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 WORDS FROM graduate

grad·u·a·tor, nounnon·grad·u·ate, nounsu·per·grad·u·ate, nounun·grad·u·at·ing, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use graduate in a sentence

They want to sail around the world after graduating from college.
These College Students Have a Dream to Sail the World|Outside Editors|November 20, 2020|Outside Online
Still, only 57% of students learning English at York graduate within four years, according to state records from the 2018-2019 school year.
Inside the Lives of Immigrant Teens Working Dangerous Night Shifts in Suburban Factories|by Melissa Sanchez|November 19, 2020|ProPublica
Clark recruited Ethiopia’s Berhane Asfaw to Berkeley’s graduate anthropology program, the first of a series of Ethiopians the Ardi team trained as paleoanthropologists.
Ardi and her discoverers shake up hominid evolution in ‘Fossil Men’|Bruce Bower|November 18, 2020|Science News
Kra, 54, has grown from an uncertain graduate student into a mathematician at the top of her field.
Searching Symbols for the Rules of Change|Rachel Crowell|November 17, 2020|Quanta Magazine

Mark Van Raamsdonk remembers the beginning of the first class he took on quantum field theory as a Princeton University graduate student.
What Is a Particle?|Natalie Wolchover|November 12, 2020|Quanta Magazine
He came to Atari seven years ago, immediately after graduating from Berkeley.
‘Asteroids’ & The Dawn of the Gamer Age|David Owen|November 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After graduating high school, he attending the University of Virginia, double-majoring in economics and foreign relations.
Ben McKenzie’s Journey From Reluctant Teen Idol on ‘The O.C.’ to Sheriff of ‘Gotham’|Marlow Stern|November 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
All these talented chefs are graduating from these old-guard kitchens and branching out and the market is saturated.
High Rents Are Killing the Restaurant Capital|Will Doig|October 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
She was a talented singer, and after graduating high school in Aurora she enrolled at Denver Community College to study music.
Indiana Serial Killer’s Confession Was Just the Start|Michael Daly|October 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
After graduating from college, I lived for 15 years without even owning a television set.
Five Lessons the Faltering Music Industry Could Learn From TV|Ted Gioia|August 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
So she remained faithful to her home duties, but each year kept up with the graduating class of a local preparatory school.
Ruth Fielding At College|Alice B. Emerson
After graduating at Oxford he was called to the bar in 1817, and for some years was engaged in law-reporting.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3|Various
There were fifty-eight of us in my graduating class—that's 1940—and exactly thirty turned up for the tenth reunion.
A Feast of Demons|William Morrison
After graduating it is advisable to find a position as an assistant.
The Canadian Girl at Work|Marjory MacMurchy
Graduating from college, looking for work, there is usually just one kind of work toward which they are mentally alert.
The Women of Tomorrow|William Hard

British Dictionary definitions for graduate

graduate

noun (ˈɡrædjʊɪt)

a person who has been awarded a first degree from a university or college
(as modifier)a graduate profession

US and Canadian a student who has completed a course of studies at a high school and received a diploma

US a container, such as a flask, marked to indicate its capacity

verb (ˈɡrædjʊˌeɪt)

to receive or cause to receive a degree or diploma

(tr) mainly US and Canadian to confer a degree, diploma, etc upon

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

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

(intr often foll by to) to change by degrees (from something to something else)

Derived forms of graduate

graduator, noun

Word Origin for graduate

C15: from Medieval Latin graduārī to take a degree, from Latin gradus a step

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

graduate

Origin of graduate

usage note for graduate

OTHER WORDS FROM graduate

Words related to graduate

How to use graduate in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for graduate

Derived forms of graduate

Word Origin for graduate