junior varsity
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of junior varsity
First recorded in 1945–50
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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.
As a sophomore, he was on junior varsity.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026
The priority is getting on scouts’ radar as quickly as possible—and a season or two on junior varsity is unacceptable.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 22, 2026
Eventually, Little would play in junior varsity football games as a punter, before jumping up to varsity level.
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2026
As a high-schooler in North Carolina, he’d been stuck on junior varsity for two years, which he later called “the best thing that could have happened.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 23, 2025
In the next few months, they were told, they would mostly race against one another and their junior varsity and varsity counterparts.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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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.