liberal arts

plural noun

1

: college or university studies (such as language, philosophy, literature, and abstract science) intended to provide chiefly general knowledge and to develop general intellectual capacities (such as reason and judgment) as opposed to professional or vocational skills

2

: the medieval studies comprising the trivium and quadrivium

Did you know?

Why do we call the liberal arts "liberal"?

The liberal in liberal arts is not political. Its roots can be traced to the Latin word liber, meaning “free, unrestricted.” Our language took the term from the Latin liberales artes, which described the education given to members of the upper classes as well as to those with the full rights of a citizen; this education involved training in such subjects as grammar, logic, geometry, etc., as opposed to the education reserved for the lower classes, which involved mechanical or occupational skills. The phrase liberal arts has been part of our language for a very long time, with use dating back to the 14th century.

Examples of liberal arts in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

How did this hardcore East Coast liberal arts major end up in this backwater working at a Costco? —Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2024

Wittenberg is a small liberal arts college located in Springfield. —Ana Rocío Álvarez Bríñez, The Indianapolis Star, 17 Sep. 2024

She is also credited with creating a culture of flexible learning, building faculty ranks, adding new programs and interdisciplinary minors, and raising the profile of liberal arts. —Rosemary Feitelberg, WWD, 19 Aug. 2024

That tension has only escalated over the last four decades, as privatization nudged universities to adopt corporate-management models that eschew investing in the liberal arts in favour of fields presumed to be commercially viable, such as computer science. —Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

Kids Definition

liberal arts

plural noun

: the studies (as literature, philosophy, languages, or history) in a college or university intended to develop the mind in a general way rather than give professional or vocational skills