Meaning & use

freshman

noun·Academic

A student in the first year of high school or college, or a first-year member of a group.

See it in a sentence

As a freshman, she felt overwhelmed by the size of the campus.

The senator was still a freshman in Congress when the bill was proposed.

A note on using this word

Increasingly replaced by the gender-neutral 'first-year' at many American colleges and universities.

Words with a similar meaning

first-year studentnewcomer

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

Words with an opposite meaning

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “freshman”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.