Graduate
adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A person who is recognized by a university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
"If the government wants graduates to stay in the country they should offer more incentives."
- 2 a measuring instrument for measuring fluid volume; a glass container (cup or cylinder or flask) whose sides are marked with or divided into amounts wordnet
- 3 A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school. Canada, US
- 4 a person who has received a degree from a school (high school or college or university) wordnet
- 5 A person who is recognized as having completed any level of education. Philippines
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- 6 A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.
- 1 To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution. ergative, intransitive
"The man graduated in 1967."
- 2 make fine adjustments or divide into marked intervals for optimal measuring wordnet
- 3 To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution). proscribed, transitive
"Trisha graduated college."
- 4 confer an academic degree upon wordnet
- 5 To certify (a student) as having earned a degree transitive
"Indiana University graduated the student."
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- 6 receive an academic degree upon completion of one's studies; completion of a course or training wordnet
- 7 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. transitive
- 8 To change gradually. intransitive
"As the species graduate into each other, both in form and in habits, from the grass-eating Geese to the fish-eating Harelds, it is difficult, […] to divide this large group into sections."
- 9 To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.
"to graduate the heat of an oven"
- 10 To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
- 11 To taper, as the tail of certain birds. intransitive
- 12 To approve (a feature) for general release. transitive
"We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow."
- 13 Of an idol: to exit a group; or of a virtual YouTuber, to leave a management agency; usually accompanied with "graduation ceremony" send-offs, increased focus on the leaving member, and the like. Japanese, intransitive
"Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters."
- 1 graduated, arranged by degrees
- 2 holding an academic degree
- 3 relating to an academic degree
- 1 of or relating to studies beyond a bachelor's degree wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"When did you graduate from Oxford?"
Etymology
From Middle English graduat(e) (“(noun) a graduate of a university; (adjective) graduate, having graduated”, also used as the past participle of graduaten (“to graduate”)), borrowed from Medieval Latin graduātus (“graduated, graduate”), perfect passive participle of graduō (“to graduate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from gradus (“step”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix). The noun is originally derived within Latin from the adjective via substantivization, see -ate (noun-forming suffix). Sense 10 of the verb, relating to Japanese entertainment, is a semantic loan from Japanese 卒業 (sotsugyō).
From Middle English graduaten (“to graduate”), from (adjective) graduat(e) (also used as the past participle of graduaten) + -en (verb-forming suffix), from Medieval Latin graduātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.
Related phrases
More for "graduate"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.