graduate
Pluralgraduates
Verbgraduates, graduating, graduated
Pluralgraduates
Formsgraduates, graduating, graduated
- 1A person recognized by a university as having completed the requirements for a degree.
The university invited all of its graduates back for a reunion.
She is a graduate of a well-known law school in the capital.
Note
Every form of the word goes back to Medieval Latin graduātus, "graduated", the participle of graduō. The noun came first and already meant a university graduate in Middle English, alongside an adjective. The verb was built later from that adjective with a verb-forming -en. The noun's natural partner is of: a graduate of a law school.
- 2To be recognized by a school or university as having completed the requirements for a degree.
Many students graduate without any debt these days.
She graduated at the top of her class.
Note
Here the student is the subject, and the institution enters with from: Trisha graduated from college; he graduated from Princeton University. The verb is ergative. It mirrors the causative use, where the college graduated him, and by the same token he graduated. With no institution named, it stands alone: the man graduated in 1967.
- 3A person recognized by a high school as having completed its course of study.
Each graduate walked across the stage to collect a diploma.
The class of recent graduates gathered for photos before the dance.
Note
In American and Canadian English the noun reaches down to school level: anyone who completes high school is a graduate. Elsewhere the word tends to suggest a university degree holder, so when writing for a wider audience, high school graduate makes the level plain and avoids a misreading.
- 4Relating to an academic degree.
The university expanded its graduate offerings in engineering.
Graduate seminars usually involve close reading and lively discussion.
Similarpostgraduate
Oppositeundergraduate
- 5To be certified by an institution as having earned a degree from it.
Many students graduate college with significant debt.
She graduated Harvard in 2010.
Note
Dropping the from, as in Trisha graduated college, is condemned by usage authorities, and careful editors will put the preposition back. In formal writing, graduated from college is the safe choice. The standard intransitive carries exactly the same meaning without drawing criticism.
- 6Of a school or university, to confer a degree on a student who has completed its requirements.
The institute aims to graduate more doctoral candidates each year.
The academy graduated forty cadets in the spring ceremony.
Note
With the institution as subject and the student as object, the verb describes what a school does to the people it sends out: Indiana University graduated the student. It can carry an edge. In "the college graduated him as soon as he was no longer eligible to play under NCAA rules," the choice of verb makes the school the one acting, and the timing look self-serving.
- 7
- 8To mark something with a series of degrees, or to divide it into regular steps or intervals.
Technicians graduate the thermometer's scale with fine, evenly spaced lines.
The instrument maker graduated the cylinder so volumes could be read at a glance.
Note
This is the instrument maker's verb: it puts evenly spaced marks on a thermometer, a rule or a flask. Its past participle then works as an adjective, as in a graduated cylinder, and the marked measuring cup takes its name from the same idea. The notion of regular steps also stretches to abstract schemes, so a system of punishments or rewards can be graduated too. It always takes an object.
- 9Arranged by degrees; increasing or changing in regular steps.
The designer chose a graduate range of tones that deepened toward the edges.
A graduate sequence of weights let the climbers train in small steps.
Similargraded, stepped, progressive
Note
An old participle hides in this adjective. Middle English graduat(e) also served as the past participle of graduaten, so graduate here simply means graduated. It behaves like an ordinary adjective and can be compared (more graduate, most graduate). Many readers will find graduated the more familiar choice for tones or scales arranged in steps.
- 10To change little by little, passing through a series of small steps or stages.
Temperatures graduate from cool mornings to warm afternoons over the course of spring.
The painting's tones graduated from deep shadow to brilliant light.
Similarshade, progress, pass, shift
Note
Two prepositions split the work. Graduate into describes kinds that shade into one another by stages. In William Macgillivray's A history of British birds (1852) the species "graduate into each other", and sandstone graduates into gneiss. Graduate to describes moving up a scale, as when a petty thief graduates to bigger crimes, borrowing the idea of promotion from schooling.
- 11A cup or other container marked with measurement lines, used for measuring out precise volumes of liquid.
The chemist transferred the solution into a graduate before recording its volume.
Each graduate on the shelf was calibrated for a different range of volumes.
- 12To prepare or adjust something by degrees; to arrange, temper, or modify it step by step, or to mark it with measured degrees.
Engineers graduate the dosage scale on each instrument before it leaves the factory.
The composer graduated the dynamics so the music swelled gradually toward the finale.
Similarcalibrate, adjust, temper, modulate
Note
Here the degrees belong to the thing being adjusted, not to marks on a scale. One graduates the heat of an oven by raising it step by step. Thomas Browne, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica, describes dyers who "advance and graduate their colors with salts." Keep it apart from marking an instrument: there the object carries the marks, while here the object itself undergoes the change.
- 13A person recognized as having completed a course or level of education.
The community center celebrated graduates from its adult literacy classes.
As a graduate of the police academy, she began her first patrol.
Note
Philippine English widens the noun further than the North American school sense. Someone who completes any level of education counts as a graduate, from the first years of schooling to a training course. Readers from other varieties may expect a degree, so naming the institution, as in graduate of the police academy, keeps the meaning clear.
- 14To approve a feature for general release, moving it from testing into full availability.
The project leads decided to graduate the API after months of beta testing.
Once the company graduated the messaging feature, it appeared for every account.
Similarpromote, release, launch
Note
Software teams borrowed the academic metaphor: a feature that has finished its trial period is graduated, much as a college graduates a student. The verb is transitive, with the team as subject: "we have graduated the new machine-learning features." It is engineering jargon, natural in release notes and team discussion, and best explained when writing for outsiders.
- 15Of an idol or virtual YouTuber, to leave their group or agency, usually marked by a special send-off ceremony.
Several members graduate each year, and the agency holds a concert for each departure.
She announced that she would graduate from the agency at the end of the tour.
Note
Japanese idol culture presents a departure as a milestone, and English-speaking fans adopted the framing. A member who leaves a group, or a virtual YouTuber who leaves an agency, graduates, often with a send-off ceremony and a final burst of attention. The word stays upbeat even when the exit is not, as when fans speculate that one star was forced to graduate because of harassment.
- 16To taper, becoming progressively shorter or narrower toward the end, as the tail feathers of certain birds.
In many cuckoos, the outer tail feathers graduate so the tail ends in a stepped point.
The hawk's tail graduated to a rounded tip rather than a square edge.
Similartaper
- 17To bring a fluid to a certain degree of consistency by evaporation.
Refiners graduate the brine until the salt begins to crystallize.
The apothecary graduated the extract to a thick, even consistency over a low flame.
Similarconcentrate, reduce, thicken
Note
Chemists apply the same idea of degrees to liquids. A fluid is graduated by evaporating it until it reaches the consistency wanted. The object is always the fluid itself and the means is always evaporation. Those two fixed points separate it from the broader tempering and adjusting of the step-by-step sense.
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Practice
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Origins
From Middle English graduat(e), borrowed from Medieval Latin graduātus ("graduated"), the past participle of graduō ("to graduate"), which comes from gradus ("step"). The noun developed within Latin from the adjective.
From Middle English graduaten ("to graduate"), formed from the adjective graduat(e) plus the verb-forming suffix -en, ultimately from Medieval Latin graduātus (see Etymology 1).