Postgraduate

How to spell postgraduate

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce postgraduate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does postgraduate mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to academic study or work undertaken after completing a first degree.
2. nounA person who is studying for a degree more advanced than a first or bachelor's degree.

Postgraduate in a sentence

• adjective

  She enrolled in a postgraduate course in clinical psychology.

• noun

  The seminar was open to every postgraduate in the department.

• adjective

  The university expanded its postgraduate research funding this year.

• noun

  As a postgraduate, he tutored undergraduates twice a week.

Where does postgraduate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word joins the Latin prefix post-, meaning 'after', to graduate, which traces back to the Latin gradus, meaning 'a step' or 'a degree'. From gradus came the medieval Latin graduatus, used of someone who had taken an academic degree, literally one who had moved up a step. English adopted graduate in the late 1300s in this scholarly sense, and the prefixed form postgraduate emerged in the nineteenth century to describe study undertaken after a first degree had already been earned. The same gradus root sits inside everyday words like 'gradual', 'grade', and 'gradient', all carrying the idea of measured steps. The spelling trap lives in the middle, where the unstressed 'gradu' slides into a schwa, tempting writers to drop or scramble the vowels in '-uate'.

How the word is built

• post- (after)
• gradu- (from Latin gradus: step, degree)
• -ate (suffix forming the noun/adjective)