student
Americannoun
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a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college; pupil.
a student at Yale.
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any person who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully.
a student of human nature.
noun
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a person following a course of study, as in a school, college, university, etc
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( as modifier )
student teacher
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a person who makes a thorough study of a subject
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:
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.
In the tumultuous first months after the revolution, a group of militant university students loyal to Khomeini occupied the US embassy.
From BBC
Williams went to Liverpool University as a mature student and studied engineering, with Hemming describing him as "generally a quiet, perhaps even shy, individual".
From BBC
Iman Talebian, a PhD student who has been in Northern Ireland for three months, said he would have no prospects of finding a job with a good salary if he lived in Iran.
From BBC
Her husband, Shashank Sane, offered to handle their living expenses while she focused on paying off her student loans.
The announcement marks a formal break with the university with which Summers had been associated since he was a graduate student.
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.
