Meaning & use

faculty

noun·Academic

A natural ability of the mind or body, such as reasoning, sight, or hearing.

See it in a sentence

Even in her nineties, she retained all her mental faculties and loved doing crossword puzzles.

The professor lost some hearing faculty after years of working near loud machinery.

A note on using this word

Faculty also commonly refers to the teaching staff of a school or a division of a university, such as the 'faculty of law,' a very different everyday sense.

Words with a similar meaning

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Another way to use it

2. noun

The teaching staff of a school or university, or a division of a university organized around a subject area.

The faculty voted to update the curriculum for next year's incoming students.

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