Student

How to spell student

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce student

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does student mean?

1. nounA person who is enrolled in a school, college, or university, or who studies a subject in depth.

Student in a sentence

• Every student must register for classes before the deadline.

• The visiting student from Berlin gave a presentation on architecture.

Where does student come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin studens, the present participle of studere, a verb that literally meant 'to be eager, to be diligent, or to apply oneself' to something. The same root gives us 'study' and 'studious', all sharing the idea of focused effort and enthusiasm rather than just attending lessons. English took the word in during the 1300s, partly through Old French estudiant, to describe a person devoting themselves to learning. The original sense of eagerness is a useful spelling clue: the word keeps the 'stud' of 'study' followed by the agent ending '-ent', so a student is literally 'one who studies'. The choice of '-ent' rather than '-ant' traces back to the Latin participle ending, which is the small detail that occasionally trips writers up.

How the word is built

• stud- (from Latin studere: to be eager, apply oneself)
• -ent (agent suffix: one who does)