What does "faculty" mean?

The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.

What is a synonym for "faculty"?

Common synonyms include: staff, ability, ability, ableness, absolute power, absolutism.

Faculty

//ˈfæk.əl.ti// noun

noun ·Common ·High school level

Usage: "Faculty" means the teaching staff of a university (collective noun) or an inherent mental or physical power ("the faculty of reason"). In American English, it takes a singular verb ("the faculty is..."); in British English, it is often treated as plural ("the faculty are...").

Origin: The academic meaning comes from Latin "facultas" (ability, opportunity). Medieval universities organized into "faculties", groups with the ability to teach and grant degrees in specific areas. The organizational structure predates the personnel meaning.

Watch out: Using "faculty" to refer to a single professor. In American English, a "faculty member" is one professor; "the faculty" is the entire teaching body. Saying "she is a faculty" is non-standard, "she is a faculty member" or "she is on the faculty."

Definitions

Noun

1
The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff. Canada, Philippines, US
2
one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind wordnet
3
A division of a university.
"She transferred from the Faculty of Science to the Faculty of Medicine."
4
the body of teachers and administrators at a school wordnet
5
An ability, power, or skill.
"He lived until he reached the age of 90 with most of his faculties intact."

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6
An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority.
"Unless he has bi-ritual faculties, the Latin priest must baptize and confirm the Eastern rite person, whether infant or adult, according to the liturgical books of the Latin church ( canon 846 , §2 )."
7
A licence to make alterations to a church. Church-of-England
8
The members of a profession.

Synonyms

All synonyms

staff ability ability ableness absolute power absolutism

Example

More examples

"The faculty meeting adopted the dean's proposal."

Etymology

From Middle English faculte (“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas (“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property; in Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas (“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis (“easy, facile”); see facile. Doublet of facility.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.