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View synonyms for liberal arts

liberal arts

plural noun

  1. the academic course of instruction at a college intended to provide general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, as opposed to professional or technical subjects.
  2. (during the Middle Ages) studies comprising the quadrivium and trivium, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, rhetoric, and logic.


liberal arts

plural noun

  1. the fine arts, humanities, sociology, languages, and literature Often shortened toarts
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


liberal arts

1
  1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. The term liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, although the liberal arts also include the sciences. The word liberal comes from the Latin liberalis , meaning suitable for a free man, as opposed to a slave.


liberal arts

2
  1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. Liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, because literature, languages, history, and philosophy are often considered the primary subjects of the liberal arts. The term liberal arts originally meant arts suitable for free people ( libri in Latin ) but not for slaves.
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Word History and Origins

Origin of liberal arts1

First recorded in 1745–55; translation of Latin artēs līberālēs “works befitting a free person,” literally, “skills of freedom”
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Example Sentences

And I systematically went about doing that in the comfort of a four-year liberal arts education, and it was heaven.

Americans starting with Benjamin Franklin have been suspicious of liberal arts higher education.

Then I went to New School in New York, which is a really small liberal arts school.

And a liberal arts education must not be an education in the art of liberalism.

“Liberal arts” comes from the Latin artes liberales, which referred to the subjects citizens studied in their free time.

The fourth quality required in our Order is the taste for useful sciences and the liberal arts.

In a short time he became learned in all the seven Liberal Arts.

The universities, however, were occupied with the so-called seven liberal arts, which were really scientific studies.

Of Mr. Hope's literary acquirements and his patronage of the liberal arts we have already spoken.

But we, who cultivate and love the liberal arts, cast an attentive eye on what is quite indifferent to the rest of the world.

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