Ph.D.
Americanabbreviation
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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.
Ph.D. student Beomjoon Chae is conducting research on programmable photonic integrated circuits at the Intelligent Wave Systems Laboratory, SNU.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 22, 2026
Min Zin, who heads a Myanmar-focused think tank and is a Berkeley Ph.D. candidate, was held upon arrival at the airport on suspicion of espionage—charges his think tank and the State Department both dispute.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Start by comparing your current support system to the support you’d get in a senior living community, said Sara Zeff Geber, Ph.D., author of “Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers.”
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 12, 2026
She walked away from a job offer at a frontier biotech company and her plans to pursue a Ph.D. in genetics and co-founded a startup building knowledge systems for biolabs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
“No, Stian. He's Norwegian, Ph.D. in dolphin language? Didn't I mention him in my last letter?”
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
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.
