Ivy League

American  

noun

1. a group of colleges and universities in the northeastern U.S., consisting of Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown, having a reputation for high scholastic achievement and social prestige.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Ivy League colleges or their students and graduates.

Ivy League British  

noun

1. 1. a group of eight universities (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth College, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale) that have similar academic and social prestige in the US to Oxford and Cambridge in Britain

   2. ( as modifier )

      an Ivy-League education

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Ivy League Cultural  

1. A group of eight old, distinguished colleges and universities in the East, known for their ivy-covered brick buildings. The members of the Ivy League are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities; Dartmouth College; and the University of Pennsylvania.

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Other Word Forms

• Ivy Leaguer
  noun

Etymology

Origin of Ivy League

First recorded in 1935–40

Example Sentences

You might think that getting an A grade at an Ivy League school would be hard.

From MarketWatch • May 26, 2026

In his earlier job at Boston Latin school, Emery sent along scores of young men to Ivy League schools.

From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026

You don’t need an Ivy League degree to do that math.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 28, 2026

Mark Carney arrived on Canada's political scene last year as an Ivy League and Oxford educated economist and a former central banker for two countries.

From BBC • Apr. 26, 2026

For me, that “anything” meant getting an acceptance letter to an Ivy League university.

From "Proud" by Ibtihaj Muhammad