undergraduate
Americannoun
-
undergraduates
plural
adjective
-
having the standing of an undergraduate.
-
of, for, pertaining to, or characteristic of undergraduates.
noun
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Nouns
Etymology
Origin of undergraduate
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How does undergraduate compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
An undergraduate is a college or university student who's not a graduate student. After high school, you can become an undergraduate. Undergraduates are students of universities and colleges: they've graduated from high school and have been accepted to college, but they haven't graduated yet. If the under in undergraduate seems confusing, that's because there are also graduate students, students who have a college degree but are no longer undergraduates and are pursuing an advanced degree, like a Master's or Ph.D. Lots of people say being an undergraduate was one of the best times of their lives: it's an exciting thing to be.
Vocabulary lists containing undergraduate
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.
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As an undergraduate, I was taught that Homo sapiens was one of these branches that emerged in Africa, spread across the world, and displaced every archaic human it encountered.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 5, 2026
The two had met in 1893, when McBryde was an undergraduate, and they remained close until McBryde’s death in 1904 from complications following surgery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
The AI era may force a separation between undergraduate liberal-arts education and research-focused graduate education.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
He began that manuscript, which takes place on the reservation, as an undergraduate at Princeton, in Toni Morrison’s long-fiction workshop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
As an undergraduate at Cornell, he started off as a public policy major.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Chandrasekaran and Raman met in 1999, when they were both undergraduates at Harvard University.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
The technology should be severely restricted for undergraduates, but it’s vital for researchers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Nearly 1,200 undergraduates were in the class in the winter term of 2024 and they flooded the online queue for office hours.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026
Signers would cap international undergraduates at 15%, require the SAT or ACT and freeze tuition for five years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Everyone! Especially folksingers and third-grade teachers. Grimy undergraduates and grammar school children are always chanting it like sorcerers.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
