faculty

[ fak-uhl-tee ]

/ ˈfæk əl ti /

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See synonyms for: faculty / faculties on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural fac·ul·ties.

an ability, natural or acquired, for a particular kind of action: a faculty for making friends easily.

one of the powers of the mind, as memory, reason, or speech: Though very sick, he is in full possession of all his faculties.

an inherent capability of the body: the faculties of sight and hearing.

exceptional ability or aptitude: a president with a faculty for management.

Education.

the entire teaching and administrative force of a university, college, or school.
one of the departments of learning, as theology, medicine, or law, in a university.
the teaching body, sometimes with the students, in any of these departments.

the members of a learned profession: the medical faculty.

a power or privilege conferred by the state, a superior, etc.: The police were given the faculty to search the building.

Ecclesiastical. a dispensation, license, or authorization.

OTHER WORDS FOR faculty

1 capacity, aptitude, knack, potential, skill.

See synonyms for faculty on Thesaurus.com

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Origin of faculty

1350–1400; Middle English faculte<Anglo-French, Middle French <Latin facultāt- (stem of facultās) ability, power, equivalent to facil(is) easy (see facile) + -tāt--ty²; cf. facility

synonym study for faculty

1. See ability.

OTHER WORDS FROM faculty

in·ter·fac·ul·ty, noun, plural in·ter·fac·ul·ties, adjectivepro·fac·ul·ty, adjectiveun·der·fac·ul·ty, noun, plural un·der·fac·ul·ties.

Words nearby faculty

factum, facture, facula, facultative, facultative apomict, faculty, Faculty of Advocates, FA Cup, fad, Fadden, faddish

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use faculty in a sentence

The University of Illinois is requiring all faculty, staff and students to participate in screening testing twice a week, using a rapid saliva-based test.
America Doesn’t Have a Coherent Strategy for Asymptomatic Testing. It Needs One.|by Caroline Chen|September 1, 2020|ProPublica
Under the terms of the deal, University of Arizona will create a non-profit entity called University of Arizona Global Campus that will maintain its own accreditation, faculty, and academic programs.
Public universities are buying the for-profit schools their professors criticize|Michelle Cheng|August 23, 2020|Quartz
The reporting prompted the university to end the use of confidentiality clauses when professors are fired and change policy to prevent faculty and administrators from arguing that academic freedom shields them in sexual misconduct cases.
ProPublica Selects Six Public Broadcasting Projects for Local Reporting Network|by ProPublica|August 21, 2020|ProPublica
She completed her training at the University of Washington and joined the faculty in 1982, eventually being promoted to research professor.
Training clinicians to spot heart failure in covid-19 patients|Tate Ryan-Mosley|August 19, 2020|MIT Technology Review

Others, including the University of North Carolina system, are developing worst-case scenario plans, where drops in enrollment could lead to employee furloughs, faculty cuts and suspended athletic programs.
The (Deferred) Class of 2020|Sandya Kola|August 9, 2020|Ozy
In all these cases, the students and even faculty members plead ignorance.
Hitler is Huge in Thailand: Chicken Joints, T-Shirts, and A Govt.-Issued Propaganda Video|Marlow Stern|December 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
All students and faculty in the UT community should support the cause of fairness in admissions.
The University of Texas’s Machiavellian War on Its Regent|David Davis|October 27, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Is it the faculty of reason, or perhaps, the faculty for discourse?
The Bioethicist Turned Butcher|Elizabeth Picciuto|September 28, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I find faculty learning about their specific, specialized research areas, but also about the wider society and natural world.
The Elite American College Pile-On|Michael S. Roth|September 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Benson concluded, “If we are not willing to hire such faculty, they are not willing to fund us.”
Koch Foundation to College: We’ll Give You Millions—if You Teach Our Libertarian Ideology|Center for Public Integrity|September 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
We were speaking of the faculty of mimicry, and he told me such a funny little anecdote about Chopin.
Music-Study in Germany|Amy Fay
There is no ground for the assertion that a spiritual faculty exists apart from the reason.
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford
This seems to amount to a claim that religious people possess an extra sense or faculty.
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford
The faculty of reason, then, has excelled this boasted faculty of spiritual discernment in its own religious sphere.
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford
But the Christian first invents this faculty, and then tells us that by this faculty religion is to be judged.
God and my Neighbour|Robert Blatchford

British Dictionary definitions for faculty

faculty

/ (ˈfækəltɪ) /

noun plural -ties

one of the inherent powers of the mind or body, such as reason, memory, sight, or hearing

any ability or power, whether acquired or inherent

a conferred power or right

a department within a university or college devoted to a particular branch of knowledge
the staff of such a department
mainly US and Canadian all the teaching staff at a university, college, school, etc

all members of a learned profession

archaic occupation

Word Origin for faculty

C14 (in the sense: department of learning): from Latin facultās capability; related to Latin facilis easy

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

faculty

OTHER WORDS FOR faculty

Origin of faculty

synonym study for faculty

OTHER WORDS FROM faculty

Words nearby faculty

Words related to faculty

How to use faculty in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for faculty

Word Origin for faculty