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”

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

liberal arts

This isn’t what she envisioned when she received a liberal arts associate degree more than a decade ago, but after nearly a decade on the job, she feels at home in her crane.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2026

Later, during my brief stint in seminary — I dropped out to head to a liberal arts college after a semester — women sometimes joked about pursuing their “MRS. degrees.”

From Salon ● Oct. 25, 2026

Like the book’s Faye, Knoll went to a private liberal arts college.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 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

It underpinned the more difficult “quadrivium”—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy— that students went on to learn; all seven subjects taken in toto being the so-called liberal arts.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith

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