UNIVERSITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does university mean? 

• UNIVERSITY (noun)
  The noun UNIVERSITY has 3 senses:

1. the body of faculty and students at a university

2. establishment where a seat of higher learning is housed, including administrative and living quarters as well as facilities for research and teaching

3. a large and diverse institution of higher learning created to educate for life and for a profession and to grant degrees

  Familiarity information: UNIVERSITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNIVERSITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The body of faculty and students at a university

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("university" is a kind of...):

body (a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity)

Meronyms (members of "university"):

grad school; graduate school (a school in a university offering study leading to degrees beyond the bachelor's degree)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "university"):

gown (the members of a university as distinguished from the other residents of the town in which the university is located)

varsity (a British abbreviation of 'university'; usually refers to Oxford University or Cambridge University)

Holonyms ("university" is a part of...):

academe; academia (the academic world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Establishment where a seat of higher learning is housed, including administrative and living quarters as well as facilities for research and teaching

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("university" is a kind of...):

establishment (a public or private structure (business or governmental or educational) including buildings and equipment for business or residence)

Domain member category:

red-brick; redbrick (of or relating to British universities founded in the late 19th century or the 20th century)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "university"):

redbrick university ((British informal) a provincial British university of relatively recent founding; distinguished from Oxford University and Cambridge University)

city university (an urban university in a large city)

Oxbridge (general term for an ancient and prestigious and privileged university (especially Oxford University or Cambridge University))

Instance hyponyms:

University of Pittsburgh (a university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

University of California at Berkeley (a university in Berkeley, California)

University of Chicago (a university in Chicago, Illinois)

University of Michigan (a university in Ann Arbor, Michigan)

University of Nebraska (a university in Lincoln, Nebraska)

University of North Carolina (a university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

Penn; Pennsylvania; University of Pennsylvania (a university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Cambridge; Cambridge University (a university in England)

Sussex University; University of Sussex (a red-brick university in Brighton, England)

University of Texas (a university in Austin, Texas)

University of Vermont (a university in Burlington, Vermont)

University of Washington (a university in Seattle, Washington)

University of West Virginia (a university in Morgantown, West Virginia)

University of Wisconsin (a university in Madison, Wisconsin)

Yale; Yale University (a university in Connecticut)

Princeton; Princeton University (a university in New Jersey)

Brown; Brown University (a university in Rhode Island)

Carnegie Mellon University (an engineering university in Pittsburgh)

Columbia; Columbia University (a university in New York City)

Cooper Union; Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (university founded in 1859 by Peter Cooper to offer free courses in the arts and sciences)

Cornell University (a university in Ithaca, New York)

Duke University (a university in Durham, North Carolina)

Harvard; Harvard University (a university in Massachusetts)

Johns Hopkins (a university in Baltimore)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology; MIT (an engineering university in Cambridge)

Ohio State University (a university in Columbus, Ohio)

Oxford; Oxford University (a university in England)

Paris University; Sorbonne; University of Paris (a university in Paris; intellectual center of France)

Stanford; Stanford University (a university in California)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A large and diverse institution of higher learning created to educate for life and for a profession and to grant degrees

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("university" is a kind of...):

educational institution (an institution dedicated to education)

Meronyms (members of "university"):

college (an institution of higher education created to educate and grant degrees; often a part of a university)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "university"):

multiversity (a university system having several separate campuses and colleges and research centers)

Open University (a British university that is open to people without formal academic qualifications and where teaching is by correspondence or broadcasting or summer school)

 Context examples 

"How long would I have to study before I could go to the university?" he asked.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The study was the first trial outside of a laboratory using a transgenic approach to fighting malaria, according to the university.

(Genetically modified fungus hailed as malaria breakthrough, SciDev.Net)

It was already dark when we reached the old university city.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This house also rules higher learning in college or a university.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Still seeking knowledge at the old university.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

One of my first duties on my recovery was to introduce Clerval to the several professors of the university.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It is awarded by many American universities and is equivalent to a PhD degree.

(Doctor of Engineering, NCI Thesaurus)

Check to see who runs the site: Is it a branch of the government, a university, a health organization, a hospital or a business?

(Evaluating Health Information, NIH: National Library of Medicine)

An award conferred by a college, university, or other postsecondary education institution as official recognition for the successful completion of a program of studies.

(Academic Degree, NCI Thesaurus)

Researchers tracked the eye movements of 42 participants as they undertook everyday tasks around a university campus, and subsequently assessed their personality traits using well-established questionnaires.

(Eyes Can Indicate Personality Type, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)