liberal arts

American  

plural noun

1. the academic course of instruction at a college intended to provide general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, as opposed to professional or technical subjects.

2. (during the Middle Ages) studies comprising the quadrivium and trivium, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

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liberal arts British  

plural noun

1. Often shortened to: arts.  the fine arts, humanities, sociology, languages, and literature

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liberal arts ¹ Cultural  

1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. The term liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, although the liberal arts also include the sciences. The word liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, meaning suitable for a free man, as opposed to a slave.

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liberal arts ² Cultural  

1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. Liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, because literature, languages, history, and philosophy are often considered the primary subjects of the liberal arts. The term liberal arts originally meant arts suitable for free people (libri in Latin) but not for slaves.

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Etymology

Origin of liberal arts

First recorded in 1745–55; translation of Latin artēs līberālēs “works befitting a free person,” literally, “skills of freedom”

Example Sentences

Recovering from the death of her brother, her physical health suffered while she studied her liberal arts degree at the University of Nottingham, affecting her second year grades.

From BBC • Jun. 10, 2026

Outside students from a liberal arts college are practiced in abstract analytical thinking—how institutions are made, what purpose they serve, for whom.

From Slate • May 27, 2026

Among the buildings damaged in the weekend attack was the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, a small college that specialises in liberal arts.

From Barron's • May 25, 2026

For years, students at Hampshire College joked that the small liberal arts school could close at any moment.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

He shouldn’t apply directly to the computing school; he should enroll as a liberal arts undergraduate, and take some of the courses necessary to compete academically with the other computing applicants, then transfer.

From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz

Related Words

• mathematics