graduate.
A person who is recognized as having completed any of various levels of education.
Meaning & usage
A person who is recognized as having completed any of various levels of education. 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.
A person who is recognized as having completed any of various levels of education. A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.
If the school board wants a higher percentage of students to become graduates, they should improve their remedial help for underachieving students.
A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.
Where this word comes from
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).
graduated, arranged by degrees
holding an academic degree
relating to an academic degree
Where this word comes from
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).
To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements of a degree studied at the institution.
The man graduated in 1967.
Trisha graduated from college.
To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
Trisha graduated college.
To certify (a student) as having earned a degree
Indiana University graduated the student.
The college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules.
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.
To change gradually.
To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.
To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
To approve (a feature) for general release.
We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.
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.
Fans speculate that she was forced to graduate due to harassment and doxxing by stalkers and haters.
Where this word comes from
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.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.