faculty
/ˈfæk.əl.ti/ noun
Forms faculties
- noun (chiefly Canada, US, Philippines) The academic staff at schools, colleges, universities or not-for-profit research institutes, as opposed to the students or support staff.
- noun A division of a university. “She transferred from the Faculty of Science to the Faculty of Medicine.”
- noun (Often in the plural): An ability, power, or skill. “He lived until he reached the age of 90 with most of his faculties intact.”
- noun An authority, power, or privilege conferred by a higher authority.
- noun (Church of England) A licence to make alterations to a church.
- noun The members of a profession.
Synonyms
ability attribute capability capacity endowment gift potential potentiality power propensity property talent virtue wherewithal mental faculty module staff
Etymology
From Middle English faculte (“power, property”), from Old French faculte, from Latin facultas (“capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property; in Medieval Latin also a body of teachers”), another form of facilitas (“easiness, facility, etc.”), from facul, another form of facilis (“easy, facile”); see facile. Doublet of facility.
Webster’s 1913
- noun Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.
- noun Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
Etymology [F. facult, L. facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “faculty”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details