matriculate

verb

ma·​tric·​u·​late mə-ˈtri-kyə-ˌlāt 

matriculated; matriculating

transitive verb

: to enroll as a member of a body and especially of a college or university

intransitive verb

: to be enrolled at a college or university

She matriculated at the state university.

matriculant

mə-ˈtri-kyə-lənt 

noun

Did you know?

Anybody who has had basic Latin knows that alma mater, a fancy term for the school you attended, comes from a phrase that means "fostering mother." If mater is mother, then matriculate probably has something to do with a school nurturing you just like good old mom, right? Not exactly. If you go back far enough, matriculate is distantly related to the Latin mater, but its maternal associations were lost long ago—even in terms of Latin history. It is more closely related to Late Latin matricula, which means "public roll or register." Matricula has more to do with being enrolled than being mothered, but it is the diminutive form of the Latin matrix, which in Late Latin was used in the sense of "list" or "register" and earlier referred to female animals kept for the purposes of breeding.

Synonyms

• enroll
• enrol
• inscribe
• list
• register

Examples of matriculate in a Sentence

the college matriculated 1000 students for the fall semester

Recent Examples on the Web

The restaurant is named after the first woman to matriculate at the university and sits in the school’s Old Steam Laundry building. —Kate Kassin, Bon Appétit, 30 Sep. 2024

Rather, Yale Law School seems to accept and matriculate a pretty diverse array of thinkers. —Greg Rosalsky, NPR, 24 Sep. 2024

Put simply, that means that there are more than three times as many foreigners studying at U.S. colleges and universities as there are Americans studying abroad altogether, and about the same number of Chinese students matriculate in the United States as do Americans anywhere in the world. —Sanford J. Ungar, Foreign Affairs, 16 Feb. 2016

After finishing her bachelor’s degree in Peru, Tello-Trillo set her sights higher, matriculating to Yale University to earn her Ph.D. in economics. —Kamaron McNair,valentina Duarte, CNBC, 12 Sep. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin matriculatus, past participle of matriculare, from Late Latin matricula public roll, diminutive of matric-, matrix list, from Latin, breeding female

First Known Use

1577, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

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Kids Definition

matriculate

verb

ma·​tric·​u·​late mə-ˈtrik-yə-ˌlāt 

matriculated; matriculating

: to enroll especially in a college or university

matriculation

-ˌtrik-yə-ˈlā-shən 

noun