Ph.D.
Americanabbreviation
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Ph.D.s
plural
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the highest degree, a doctorate, awarded by a graduate school in a field of academic study, usually to a person who has completed at least three years of graduate study and a dissertation approved by a committee of professors.
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a person who has been awarded this degree.
Etymology
Origin of Ph.D.
First recorded in 1870–75; from Latin Philosophiae Doctor
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.
Mazzini and Nathan Shunk, a third-year Ph.D. student, recently published a study defining "vertical marine heatwaves" and developing a classification system for them in the Bay.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026
“Parents shouldn’t need a Ph.D. in chemistry to understand what they’re feeding their kids.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026
Facing a $160 million deficit, the University of Chicago paused admissions this year into more than a dozen Ph.D. programs, including anthropology, social work, social thought, Middle Eastern studies, Romance languages and visual arts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
“The University faces an urgent need to address the increasing cost of supporting Ph.D. students, which now ranges from a total of $700,000 to $1 million per student,” a faculty committee reported this spring.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
She doesn’t say what she’d like you to get the Ph.D. in, but I assume Math rather than Greek, you dirty little bookworm.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
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.
