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graduate

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

Someone who has finished a degree at a college or university

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

grajuhwuht

Say the bold part a little louder.

noun: grajoouhtverb: grajooayt

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈɡɹædʒəwət

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. A person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.

  2. uscanada

    A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.

  3. USCanada

    A person who has received a degree from a school (high school or college or university)

  4. philippines

    A person who is recognized as having completed any level of education.

  5. A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.

adjective

  1. Holding an academic degree

  2. Relating to an academic degree

  3. Graduated, arranged by degrees

verb

  1. transitiveproscribed

    To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).

  2. transitive

    To certify (a student) as having earned a degree

  3. intransitive

    To change gradually.

  4. To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.

  5. transitive

    To mark (something) with degrees; to divide into regular steps or intervals, as the scale of a thermometer, a scheme of punishment or rewards, etc.

  6. intransitive

    To taper, as the tail of certain birds.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Academic

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.

Used this way, graduate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • alumna , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use graduate

  • “She graduated in 1990.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Recognized / certified

graduate schoolgraduate studentgraduate studygraduate education

Graduated / measuring

graduate degree

Other combinations

graduate workgraduate programgraduate level

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • graduatedadjectiveInflected form

    Marked with or divided into degrees.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • graduate studentnounCompound term

    A student who continues studies after graduation.

  • graduated cylindernounCompound term

    A cylindrical graduate.

  • graduated tablenounCompound term

    An ordered reference standard.

  • graduated taxnounCompound term

    Any tax in which the rate increases as the amount subject to taxation increases.

  • graduating classnounCompound term

    The body of students who graduate together this year.

  • graduate nursenounCompound term

    Someone who has completed the course of study (including hospital practice) at a nurses training school.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution

gradpostgraduatealum

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.