undergraduate
Americannoun
adjective
-
having the standing of an undergraduate.
-
of, for, pertaining to, or characteristic of undergraduates.
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of undergraduate
Compare meaning
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.
Biology Ph.D. student Tim Curtis Jr. participated in the work in Currie's lab, along with undergraduate Elena Singer-Freeman, a Goldwater Scholar and 2025 Wake Forest graduate in biochemistry and molecular biology.
From Science Daily • May 9, 2026
She completed her undergraduate degree at Stanford University and her medical degree at UC Irvine and teaches other professionals and clinicians at UCLA, USC and other schools, according to her website.
From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2026
"Mechanical engineer and computer scientist by degree, independent game developer by experience, teacher by birth," according to his profile, which noted that he had an undergraduate degree from the California Institute of Technology.
From Barron's • Apr. 26, 2026
A proud Kansas City native, Noah has an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri, where he studied business and economics reporting.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 22, 2026
However, throughout my school and undergraduate years, my training was mainly in languages, history, and writing.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
