institute
Pluralinstitutes
Verbinstitutes, instituting, instituted
Pluralinstitutes
Formsinstitutes, instituting, instituted
- 1An organization set up for a particular purpose, especially research, education, or promoting a cause, including a college for technical or specialized study.
The institute publishes annual reports on press freedom worldwide.
Policy institutes on both sides of the debate released competing studies.
UsageOften part of a name: the Institute of Technology. An institute is one organization; institution is wider, also covering banks, hospitals and customs.
- 2To begin or initiate something, such as a policy or organization; to found.
Congress voted to institute stricter reporting requirements for lobbyists.
The company instituted a four-day workweek after a successful trial.
UsageIts objects are things set up formally: institute a policy, a rule, proceedings against someone.
Similarestablish, introduce, initiate, launch, found
Oppositeabolish, end, terminate, scrap
Note
Jefferson's Declaration of Independence (1776) places institute beside alter and abolish: a people may alter or abolish an existing government and institute a new one. That formal company is where the word still lives.
- 3The building that houses a learning institution or an organization devoted to a cause.
The institute stands at the corner of Fifth and Oak, behind a row of elms.
Workers renovated the institute's lecture halls over the summer.
- 4To nominate or appoint someone to a position or office.
A Roman testator could institute several heirs at once, giving each a fixed share of the estate.
The emperor instituted a trusted general as governor of the eastern provinces.
UsageTakes a person and a role: institute someone as heir, or to be regent.
Similarappoint, install, nominate, name
Oppositedismiss, remove, depose
Note
Shakespeare's The First Part of Henry the Sixth has "We institute your Grace / To be our regent in these parts of France." Unlike the clerical meaning, it carries no church office with it, and the post can be civil, military or royal.
- 5A brief, concentrated program of classes or meetings for study and training, frequently run in the summer for teachers or other professionals.
Forty high school history teachers attended a two-week institute on the Constitution at the state university.
The foundation sponsors week-long institutes where librarians train in digital archiving.
Similarworkshop, seminar, course
Note
This use is mainly American, at home in schooling and professional training. The word usually takes a modifier naming when it runs or whom it serves: a summer institute, a teachers' institute, a two-week institute on one topic. Keep it apart from the organization meaning: you attend this kind of institute for a few days or weeks and then go home, while the other kind is a standing body with staff.
- 6The act of establishing or founding something; establishment.
water sanctified by Christ's institute
1641, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Cavses that hitherto have Hindred it.Note
A use that has fallen away, in which the noun named the act of founding itself. Milton in 1641 wrote of water "sanctified by Christ's institute," meaning by Christ's ordaining it. Modern English gives this job to institution or establishment, so the bare noun in this sense would read as a slip today. Keep it for period writing, where it signals deliberate old-fashioned diction.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The noun formerly meant the act of instituting or founding. en.wiktionary.org
- Milton's passage was first published in 1641, in Of Reformation in England. oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
- Milton described water as sanctified by Christ's institute, referring to Christ's institution or ordaining of baptism. oll-resources.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
- 7Something established or fixed as a settled practice, such as a law, habit, or custom.
to make the Stoic institutes thy own
1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John DrydenThey made a sort of institute and digest of anarchy.
1837, Robert Huish, The History of the Life and Reign of William IVNote
Where the act of founding names the deed, this sense names its result: a fixed rule, doctrine or custom. Dryden's 1693 translation of Persius has the line "to make the Stoic institutes thy own." The phrase "a sort of institute and digest of anarchy" pairs the word with digest, both terms for a codified body of rules. The plural, meaning a set of principles, is its natural shape.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Institute could denote an established rule or custom. en.wiktionary.org
- The quoted line occurs in Dryden's translation of Persius, spoken by Persius to Cornutus. gutenberg.org
- The phrase 'a sort of institute and digest of anarchy' is an authentic quotation pairing the two words for an organized body of principles. gutenberg.org
- Digest can mean an organized compilation of laws. en.wiktionary.org
- 8To train or instruct a person.
If children were early instituted, knowledge would insensibly insinuate itself.
a. 1684, author unknown, Gentleman's CallingPublius was the first that ever instituted the Souldier to manage his armes by dexteritie and skil, and joyned art unto vertue, not for the use of private contentions, but for the wars and Roman peoples quarrels.
1603, Michel de Montaigne, The EssayesNote
Here the object is a person rather than a practice: to institute a soldier or a child was to train them. John Florio's 1603 translation of Montaigne's Essayes has Publius instituting "the Souldier to manage his armes," with an infinitive naming the skill taught. The sense is obsolete. A modern reader would hear "instituted children" as a garbled use of the "found" meaning, so write train or instruct instead.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Institute could mean to train or instruct a person, including a soldier or child. en.wiktionary.org
- John Florio's translation of Montaigne's Essays was first published in 1603. en.wikisource.org
- Florio's translation describes Publius instituting the soldier to manage his arms; the infinitive specifies the skill taught. hyperessays.net
- The training or instruction sense is obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
- 9Established, organized, or founded; set in place.
They have but few laws. For to a people so instruct and institute, very few to suffice.
1551, Thomas More, A FrutefulNote
A participle taken straight from Latin īnstitūtus, with no English -ed ending. In Raphe Robynson's 1551 English of Thomas More's Utopia, a people "so instructe and institute" needs very few laws, and there the pair means taught and trained, so the form also served the "train" meaning. English later settled on instituted, so this form now looks like a misprint. It is obsolete and takes no comparative.
- 10To formally invest a member of the clergy with the spiritual charge of a benefice or the care of souls.
- 11In a settlement of property, the person to whom an estate is first given by destination or limitation.
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Practice
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Origins
This goes back to Latin "institutum," which passed through Middle French into French as "institut," the form English took.
Latin "instituo" ("I set up, place upon, purpose, begin, institute"), made of "in" (in, on) and "statuo" (set up, establish), had the past participle "institutus," and that form reached English by way of Middle English.