liberal education

American  

noun

1. an education based primarily on the liberal arts, emphasizing the development of intellectual abilities as opposed to the acquisition of professional skills.

2. wide experience and education.

   Foreign travel gave him a liberal education.

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Example Sentences

In that sense, “The Rise and Fall of Rational Control” is an exercise in the liberal education that was already threatened when Mr. Mansfield began teaching History of Modern Political Philosophy in the 1960s.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 30, 2026

“I don’t think you can have a classical liberal education, for example, without grappling with Marx,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 5, 2023

After all, an unquestioned objective of a liberal education, I supposed, was to make students uncomfortable.

From New York Times • Apr. 7, 2022

Hill wasn't teaching student readers here how to conduct an inquiry in the spirit of liberal education.

From Salon • May 8, 2021

He advocated teaching poor as well as rich children, breaking down a subject to its elements, and a broad, liberal education along with teacher training.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin