Curriculum

How to spell curriculum

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce curriculum

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curriculum mean?

1. nounThe set of courses, subjects, and content taught in a school, college, or training programme.

Curriculum in a sentence

• The new curriculum places far more emphasis on practical mathematics.

• Teachers spent the summer revising the science curriculum for younger pupils.

Where does curriculum come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from Latin curriculum, which literally meant a 'running' or a 'racecourse', and could also denote a small chariot used for racing. It was built on the verb currere, meaning 'to run', the same root that gives us 'current', 'courier' and 'corridor'. Originally the noun named the circular track around which chariots raced, so the underlying image is one of a fixed course to be run from start to finish. When universities, especially in Scotland in the seventeenth century, adopted the term for a planned course of study, they kept that sense of a set path to be travelled through learning. English took the Latin word wholesale, which is why the spelling preserves the double 'r' and the awkward unstressed middle vowels that trip writers up. The plural can follow Latin as 'curricula' or take the English form 'curriculums'.

How the word is built

• curr- (from currere: to run)
• -icul- (Latin diminutive)
• -um (Latin neuter noun ending)