faculty

American  

[fak-uhl-tee] / ˈfæk əl ti /

noun

plural

faculties

1. an ability, natural or acquired, for a particular kind of action.

   a faculty for making friends easily.

   Synonyms:

   skill, potential, knack, aptitude, capacity

2. one of the powers of the mind, as memory, reason, or speech.

   Though very sick, he is in full possession of all his faculties.

3. an inherent capability of the body.

   the faculties of sight and hearing.

4. exceptional ability or aptitude.

   a president with a faculty for management.

5. Education.

   1. the entire teaching and administrative force of a university, college, or school.

   2. one of the departments of learning, as theology, medicine, or law, in a university.

   3. the teaching body, sometimes with the students, in any of these departments.

6. the members of a learned profession.

   the medical faculty.

7. a power or privilege conferred by the state, a superior, etc..

   The police were given the faculty to search the building.

8. Ecclesiastical. a dispensation, license, or authorization.

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faculty British  

/ ˈfækəltɪ /

noun

1. one of the inherent powers of the mind or body, such as reason, memory, sight, or hearing

2. any ability or power, whether acquired or inherent

3. a conferred power or right

4. 1. a department within a university or college devoted to a particular branch of knowledge

   2. the staff of such a department

   3. all the teaching staff at a university, college, school, etc

5. all members of a learned profession

6. archaic occupation

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Related Words

See ability.

Other Word Forms

• interfaculty noun
• profaculty adjective
• underfaculty noun

Etymology

Origin of faculty

1350–1400; Middle English faculte < Anglo-French, Middle French < Latin facultāt- (stem of facultās ) ability, power, equivalent to facil ( is ) easy ( facile ) + -tāt- -ty ²; facility

Example Sentences

"You often have undergraduates that are part of papers - faculty choose undergraduates all the time to work on papers and projects. But for an undergraduate to be the lead author is a huge deal."

From Science Daily • Apr. 3, 2026

Kent Smetters, faculty director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, said: “If you had a 1% increase over a full decade, you’re going to be talking about several trillion dollars.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

Harvard administrators and some faculty counter that the goal is to fix the culture and challenge students to invest in their coursework.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 3, 2026

A petition with more than 3,300 signatures — more than half of them CSU students, staff or faculty — is circulating to call for an to end to the partnership.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2026

The admin team, the faculty, they had all the power.

From "Tradition" by Brendan Kiely

Related Words

• department
• institute
• personnel
• staff
• university