alumnus

play

noun alum·nus \ə-ˈləm-nəs\

Definition of alumnus

plural

alumni

play \-ˌnī\

1 : a person who has attended or has graduated from a particular school, college, or university an alumnus of Columbia University —usually used of a man in the singular but often of men and women in the plural
2 : a person who is a former member, employee, contributor, or inmate a Saturday Night Live alumnus

See alumnus defined for English-language learners

See alumnus defined for kids

Examples of alumnus in a Sentence

Her parents are alumni of the state university.

Recent Examples of alumnus from the Web

In 2015, the group allowed women to join, in part due to pressure from the school's administration, and was met with blowback from the alumni community.

— caroline hallemann, Town & Country, "Harvard's Fox Club Is All-Male Once Again", 5 July 2017
Meanwhile, Fox alumni Greta van Susteren was seen as someone who could book big Washington guests from the Republican side of the aisle.

— vanityfair.com, "Can Megyn Kelly Outrun Her NBC “Nightmare”?", 27 June 2017
The leadership of AQAP, the branch that has placed multiple explosives on passenger airplanes, includes alumni of both Yemeni black sites and Guantánamo, facts that the group deploys generously in its propaganda.

— cori crider, The Atlantic, "The Danger of Yemen's Secret Prisons", 25 June 2017
A biography posted on the theater’s website lists von Metzke as an alumnus of the program.

— james dehaven, sandiegouniontribune.com, "Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl", 21 June 2017
BLOOMINGTON -- Indiana appears poised to have at least two players picked in this year's NBA draft, and the Hoosiers might land their first alumnus in the lottery since 2014.

— zach osterman, The Courier-Journal, "NBA draft primer: Former IU players set for busy night", 21 June 2017
Given annually, the award remains the IUAA's premier alumni honor.

— erika rose, Post-Tribune, "Prestigious IU alumni award bestowed to Valparaiso teacher", 15 June 2017
By the way, the first KU alumnus in space was Commander Ron Evans, a Kansas native who graduated from KU with a degree in electrical engineering in 1955.

— lisa gutierrez, kansascity, "Meet KU grad Loral O’Hara, newly minted NASA astronaut candidate", 13 June 2017
And once the public had processed the chutzpah of the swamp-draining president’s hiring no less than five alumni from Government Sachs, even liberals started wondering whether this wasn’t a terrible development.

— jessica pressler, Daily Intelligencer, "Gary Cohn Has Profited From Big Mistakes. So Why Not Go Work for Trump?", 11 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'alumnus'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Alumnus or Alumna?

Many people are comfortable using the word alumni to refer to someone who was a student of a particular school. However, others feel quite strongly that this is an error and that the following forms should be used: alumnus (for one male), alumni (for multiple males, or for a mix of males and females), alumna (for one female), and alumnae (for multiple females). The shortened form alum and its plural form alums began to be used in the 19th century. Initially, alum was widely viewed as highly colloquial or informal, but is increasing in use as a gender-neutral alternative.