matriculate
verb
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.
Examples of matriculate in a Sentence
Steph Solis, Axios, 11 Feb. 2025
Brown University’s Program in Liberal Medical Education and Case Western Reserve University’s Pre-Professional Scholars Program both don’t require their students to take the MCAT before matriculating into medical school.
—Kristen Moon, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
For traditional medical school applicants applying after undergrad, gap years are on the rise, with 73% of respondents taking at least one gap year after college before matriculating into medical school, according to the 2023 Matriculating Student Questionnaire.
—Kristen Moon, Forbes, 7 Jan. 2025
Harris matriculated at Howard in 1982.
—Jazmine Hughes, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Matriculate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/matriculate. Accessed 4 May. 2025.
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matriculate
verb
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