Scholarship

How to spell scholarship

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce scholarship

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does scholarship mean?

1. nounA grant of money awarded to a student to support their education, usually on the basis of merit or need.
2. nounSerious academic study or the quality of learning and research shown in such work.

Scholarship in a sentence

• She won a full scholarship that covered her university tuition.

• Her book is admired for its careful scholarship and original argument.

• The foundation offers a generous scholarship to talented musicians each year.

• The professor devoted his life to scholarship and patient research.

Where does scholarship come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The first part, scholar, traces back to the Late Latin scholaris, meaning 'belonging to a school', which grew from the Latin schola, 'a place of learning'. That Latin word itself was borrowed from the Greek skhole, which originally meant 'leisure' or 'free time', because in the ancient world only those free from labour could devote hours to study and discussion. English absorbed scholar very early, through Old English scolere, and it has meant a student or a learned person ever since. The ending -ship is a native English suffix, seen also in friendship and hardship, that turns a noun into an abstract state or status; here it produces 'the condition or accomplishment of a scholar'. The later meaning, a grant of money supporting study, developed naturally because such awards mark a student as worthy of scholarly standing. The single 'l' and the 'ar' (not 'er') ending are the usual spelling traps for an otherwise familiar word.

How the word is built

• scholar (a learned person, from Latin schola: school)
• -ship (state, quality, or status)