liberal arts
Americanplural noun
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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.
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(during the Middle Ages) studies comprising the quadrivium and trivium, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, rhetoric, and logic.
plural noun
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He advised students in liberal arts to major in law, accounting, or Chinese literature, reasoning that these fields most commonly led to recruitment after civil service exams.
From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026
“Vladimir” began shooting in July 2025 in Toronto, which stood in for an undefined liberal arts college town.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026
I am going to have to pick on liberal arts majors.
From Barron's • Feb. 19, 2026
The promise of full financial-need coverage is why Perez, who grew up in Guatemala and immigrated to the U.S. three years ago, is aiming to attend a private liberal arts college.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 29, 2025
It felt unbearably selfish, just downright wrong, to be indulging myself with an education in the liberal arts at a fancy private college while Mom and Dad were on the streets.
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
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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.