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Synonyms

higher education

American  

noun

  1. education beyond high school, specifically that provided by colleges and graduate schools, and professional schools.

higher education British  

noun

  1. education and training at colleges, universities, polytechnics, etc

"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

Etymology

Origin of higher education

First recorded in 1865–70

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.

Higher education sales increased 2%, supported by a solid performance in its core U.S. courseware business, which was partly offset by challenging conditions in mature international markets, it said.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 1, 2026

Higher education institutions run essays through programmes such as Turnitin, which are designed to detect plagiarism and false authorship.

From BBC • Dec. 16, 2025

Higher education institutions maintain that their tuition practices abide by the law.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 22, 2025

Higher education will have to do the same.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 18, 2025

I think—as I thought in 1967—that the black civil rights leaders were correct: Higher education was not, nor is it yet, accessible to many black Americans.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

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.