Added 9 October 2026
university
/junɪˈvɜːsəti/ noun
In Latin: universitas Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about university at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- 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.
Origin
From Middle English universite (“institution of higher learning, body of persons constituting a university”) from Anglo-Norman université, from Old French universitei, from Medieval Latin stem of universitas, in juridical and Late Latin "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild, corporation, etc"; in Latin, "the whole, aggregate," from universus (“whole, entire”). By surface analysis, universe + -ity.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)