seminary
Americannoun
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a special school providing education in theology, religious history, etc., primarily to prepare students for the priesthood, ministry, or rabbinate.
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a school, especially one of higher grade.
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a school of secondary or higher level for young women.
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a place of origin and propagation.
a seminary of discontent.
noun
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an academy for the training of priests, rabbis, etc
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another word for seminar
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a place where something is grown
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of seminary
1400–50; late Middle English: seed plot, nursery < Latin sēminārium, equivalent to sēmin- (stem of sēmen ) seed, semen + -ārium -ary
Explanation
What do ministers, priests, rabbis, and children have in common? They all might attend a school that has the word seminary in its name. A seminary is a school, especially one where people train to be religious leaders. Seminary comes from the Latin word seminarium, meaning "plant nursery," which can be interpreted as, "breeding ground." Like a greenhouse that provides ideal conditions for seeds to grow into hearty plants, a seminary was first a place for young men to become priests. Seminary typically describes religious institutions but it can apply to nonreligious schools as well.
Vocabulary lists containing seminary
The Alchemist
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Lyddie
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Chapter 20: Renaissance and Reformation
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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.
See Examples For:
Reilly spent nine years in seminary before switching to pursue politics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
The new consecrations are set to take place near the society's seminary in Econe, a village in the Rhone valley in Alpine southwest Switzerland, at the foot of the mountains.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Jaber Rajabi, who served in the Revolutionary Guard and studied with Khamenei in a religious seminary in Qom before defecting in 2016, warned Iran’s Arab neighbors about him before his elevation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
He left before completing seminary, joining the civil rights movement full time.
From Salon ● Feb. 17, 2026
He told Gamble to dismount and dig in along the crest of the ridge just past the seminary, facing the Rebs who would come down that road.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
Khamenei was born in Mashhad, Iran's second-largest city located in the north-east of the country, and studied at seminaries in the city before moving to Qom, the centre of Iran's Shia clerical establishment.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
He studied at religious seminaries in Mashhad before continuing his education in the holy Iraqi city of Najaf and the religious centre of Qom.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
“The church is thriving in many parts of Africa, and seminaries there are full in a way they are not in the U.S. or Europe,” said Kevin Hughes, a professor of theology at Villanova University.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
Most of them reside and run seminaries in the holy cities of Qom in Iran and Najaf in Iraq.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2026
The custom of fagging existed in this school, as in all the higher seminaries of England.
From Curiosities of Human Nature by Anonymous
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.
