undergraduate
Americannoun
adjective
-
having the standing of an undergraduate.
-
of, for, pertaining to, or characteristic of undergraduates.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
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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The debate has drawn national attention because UC now stands nearly alone among many elite institutions — in particular, private ones that it often ranks alongside for research prowess and undergraduate education.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
She is just about to complete her undergraduate degree at the University of Greenwich and has £50,000 worth of student debt.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
The observation immediately reminded him of an earlier experience during an undergraduate fossil excavation in Montana.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 5, 2026
Here’s what you need to know, whether you’re a parent, graduate student or an undergraduate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
In about twelve hours, in an undergraduate dorm room in New York, he had poured the foundation for the Human Genome Project.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
In 2023, Plan 2 loans were replaced for undergraduates in England with Plan 5 loans.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
The institute, anchored in UC Berkeley’s Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science, plans to reach 500 students a year via an eventual dozen or more course offerings open to undergraduates across majors.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
"Geologists collected them avidly; undergraduates were baffled by them in practical classes. But in recent years they have become very relevant."
From Science Daily ● May 26, 2026
Unlike Edwards, in the 2023-24 school year, 27.8% of undergraduates received federal student loans, according to the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● May 15, 2026
They’d met at Princeton as undergraduates, and Brian had pictures of himself as a baby in a Princeton onesie.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
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.
