university

pronunciation

How to pronounce university in British English: UK [ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːsəti]word uk audio image

How to pronounce university in American English: US [ˌjuːnɪˈvɜːrsəti] word us audio image

  • Noun:
    the body of faculty and students at a university
    establishment where a seat of higher learning is housed, including administrative and living quarters as well as facilities for research and teaching
    a large and diverse institution of higher learning created to educate for life and for a profession and to grant degrees

Word Origin

university
university: [14] The etymological notion underlying a university is that it denotes the ‘whole’ number of those belonging to it. The word comes via Old French universite from Latin ūniversitās, which was derived from ūniversus (source of English universe). This originally meant the ‘whole’, but in the postclassical period it was applied to guilds and other such associations, referring to the ‘totality’ of their membership. These included societies of teachers and students, from which the modern meaning of university emerged.=> universe
university (n.)
c. 1300, "institution of higher learning," also "body of persons constituting a university," from Anglo-French université, Old French universite "universality; academic community" (13c.), from Medieval Latin universitatem (nominative universitas), "the whole, aggregate," in Late Latin "corporation, society," from universus "whole, entire" (see universe). In the academic sense, a shortening of universitas magistrorum et scholarium "community of masters and scholars;" superseded studium as the word for this. The Latin word also is the source of Spanish universidad, German universität, Russian universitetŭ, etc.

Example

1. I teach at a university in canada .
2. Obama 's parents met at the university of hawaii .
3. Researchers at the johns hopkins university school of medicine are one gene closer to understanding schizophrenia and related disorders .
4. University or straight into work ?
5. I do like this university .

more: >How to Use "university" with Example Sentences