Word
undergraduate
Phoneticsun·der·grad·u·ate
US/ˌəndɝˈɡɹædʒəwət/
UK/ˌʌndəɡɹˈædjuːət/
Definitions
01university student
n. a student who is studying for their first university degree.
n. a student at a higher education institution who is pursuing a first degree, typically a Bachelor's degree.
“The university has over twenty thousand undergraduates studying everything from art to science.”
“As an undergraduate, she spent most of her time in the library researching historical linguistics for her final dissertation.”
Academic
Usage
Often shortened to 'undergrad' in informal speech.
Teaching tip
In American English, students are often called 'freshmen', 'sophomores', 'juniors', or 'seniors' depending on their year of undergraduate study.
Antonyms
02relating to first degrees
adj. describing things related to students who are studying for their first degree.
adj. relating to or being an undergraduate student or the level of study leading to a first degree.
“He is currently taking an undergraduate course in psychology.”
“The department offers several undergraduate programmes, though the most competitive is the dual-degree in law and economics.”
Academic
Usage
Usually placed before a noun.
Antonyms
Real-World Examples
“A team of undergraduates and I revisited the methanol study and attempted to replicate past results using a new dataset from ALMA observations.” “Admittedly, I’ve taught generations of students about Wagner and Bayreuth and have been aware of the theatre’s acoustic – revered among opera-lovers – since I was myself an undergraduate.” Etymology
From under- + graduate.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Related words
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/undergraduate