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.
Emily Tom, a UC Irvine Ph.D. student and physician-scientist in training in Skowronska-Krawczyk's laboratory, remembers the moment one of those preserved eyes arrived.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
The new findings indicate that this protection may only work up to a point, said Angela Encerrado-Manriquez, the paper's lead author and a recent Ph.D. graduate from UC Davis.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
He achieved a Ph.D. from Liverpool John Moores University, and soon began to climb the academic ranks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Major American research universities admitted 15% fewer students to Ph.D. programs this fall compared with a year earlier.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
If he continued to behave this way, he could easily spend the next five years in the lab without collecting sufficient data to warrant an honest Ph.D.
From "Double Helix" by James D. Watson
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.
