graduate

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
10
Words With Friends
12
Letters
8
Pronunciation
/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuət/
See all 6 pronunciations
/ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuət/ · /ˈɡɹædjuət/ · /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒuɪt/ · /ˈɡɹædjueɪt/ (UK) · /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/ (UK) · /ˈɡɹæd͡ʒueɪt/ (US)

Definition of graduate

17 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

noun

  1. 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.”
See all 17 definitions

noun

  1. 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.”
  2. (Canada, US)A person who is recognized by a high school as having completed the requirements of a course of study at the school.
  3. (Philippines)A person who is recognized as having completed any level of education.
  4. A graduated (marked) cup or other container, thus fit for measuring.

adj

  1. graduated, arranged by degrees
  2. holding an academic degree
  3. relating to an academic degree

verb

  1. (ergative, intransitive)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.”
    “After graduating from Princeton University, he earned a law degree in Canada, then worked as an environmental lawyer in Israel before settling on the south side of Youngstown.”
  2. (proscribed, transitive)To be certified as having earned a degree from; to graduate from (an institution).
    “Trisha graduated college.”
  3. (transitive)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.”
  4. (transitive)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.
  5. (intransitive)To change gradually.
    “As the species graduate into each other, both in form and in habits, from the grass-eating Geese to the fish-eating Harelds, it is difficult, […] to divide this large group into sections.”
    “Yadav, born Bharat Kalicharan, was a petty thief who had graduated to bigger crimes, terrorising Kasturba Nagar, on the edge of the city of Nagpur, in Maharashtra, from the 1990s until his death.”
    “sandstone which graduates into gneiss; carnelian sometimes graduates into quartz”
  6. To prepare gradually; to arrange, temper, or modify by degrees or to a certain degree; to determine the degrees of.
    “to graduate the heat of an oven”
    “Dyers, who advance and graduate their colours with salts.”
  7. To bring to a certain degree of consistency, by evaporation, as a fluid.
  8. (intransitive)To taper, as the tail of certain birds.
  9. (transitive)To approve (a feature) for general release.
    “We have graduated the new machine-learning features and will roll them out tomorrow.”
  10. (Japanese, intransitive)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.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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,…

See full etymology

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).

Words you can make from graduate

145 playable · top: GRADATE (9 pts)

Best play gradate 9 points

7-letter words

1 word

6-letter words

7 words

5-letter words

31 words

4-letter words

48 words

3-letter words

42 words

2-letter words

15 words

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

A single letter you can add to graduate to make another valid word.

Find your best play with graduate

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes graduate, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.