Student Definition & Meaning

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    • Synonyms student American [stood-nt, styood-] / ˈstud nt, ˈstyud- /

    noun

    1. a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college; pupil.

      a student at Yale.

    2. any person who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully.

      a student of human nature.

    student British / ˈstjuːdənt /

    noun

      1. a person following a course of study, as in a school, college, university, etc

      2. ( as modifier )

        student teacher

    2. a person who makes a thorough study of a subject

    "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

    Pronunciation

    See new.

    Usage

    Where does student come from? The word student entered English around 1350–1400. It ultimately derives from the Latin studēre. The meaning of this verb is one we think will resonate with a lot of actual students out there: “to take pains.” No, we’re not making this up: a student, etymologically speaking, can be understood a “pains-taker”!In Latin, studēre had many other senses, though, and ones that some students may have a harder time relating to. Studēre could also mean “to desire, be eager for, be enthusiastic about, busy oneself with, apply oneself to, be diligent, pursue, study.” The underlying idea of student, then, is about striving—for new knowledge and abilities. It’s about that mix of hard work and passion. Isn’t that inspirational?Dig deeperWe don’t think you have to be a student of etymology to make the connection between student and study. Like student, the verb study also comes from the Latin studēre. The noun study—as in The scientists conducted a sleep study or Her favorite room of her house is the study—is also related to studēre and is more immediately derived from the Latin noun studium, meaning “zeal, inclination,” among other senses. But not all connections between words are so obvious. Consider student and tweezers. Would you have guessed this unlikely pair of words share a common root? Let’s, um, pick this apart.Tweezers are small pincers or nippers for plucking our hairs, extracting splinters, picking up small objects, and so forth. The word entered English in the mid-1600s, based on tweeze, an obsolete noun meaning “case of surgical instruments,” which contained what we now call tweezers.Losing its initial E along the way, tweeze comes from etweese, which is an English rendering of the French etui, a type of small case used to hold needles, cosmetic instruments, and the like. Etui can ultimately be traced back to the Latin stūdiāre, “to treat with care,” related to the same studēre. This is how student is related to, of all things, tweezers.

    Related Words

    See pupil 1.

    Other Word Forms

    • antistudent noun
    • nonstudent noun
    • studentless adjective
    • studentlike adjective

    Etymology

    Origin of student

    First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Latin student- (stem of studēns ), present participle of studēre “to take pains”; -ent; replacing Middle English studiant, aphetic variant of estudiant, from Old French, noun use of present participle of estudier “to devote oneself to, study” ( study

    Compare meaning

    How does student compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

    • teacher vs. student

    Example Sentences

    Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

    He is on the farm on a residential basis as their first long-term student.

    From BBC

    The studio is just big enough for 15 students at a time.

    From The Wall Street Journal

    The incidence of myopia is highest in Southeast Asia—maybe not surprising given the heavy cultural emphasis on academics—where an estimated 80% of students who complete 12 years of school are myopic.

    From The Wall Street Journal

    Protesting students in Serbia on Sunday swapped massive street demonstrations for a push to collect citizens’ signatures, to gauge whether they had support to demand snap parliamentary elections.

    From Barron's

    At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, I once had a fellow student change her mind after hearing I was from KCK.

    From The Wall Street Journal

    Related Words

    • graduate
    • junior
    • pupil
    • scholar
    • undergraduate

    Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

    Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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