liberal arts

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liberal arts

pl.n.
1. Academic disciplines, including literature, history, languages, philosophy, mathematics, and general sciences, viewed in contrast to professional and technical disciplines.
2. The disciplines comprising the trivium and quadrivium.

[Middle English, translation of Medieval Latin artēs liberālēs, the trivium and quadrivium : Latin artēs, pl. of ars, subject of study + līberālēs, pl. of līberālis, proper to free persons.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

liberal arts

pl n
(Education) the fine arts, humanities, sociology, languages, and literature. Often shortened to: arts
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

lib′eral arts′


n.pl.
1. academic college courses providing general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.
2. (during the Middle Ages) studies comprising the quadrivium and trivium.
[1745–55; translation of Latin artēs līberālēs works befitting a free man]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.liberal arts - studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills)liberal arts - studies intended to provide general knowledge and intellectual skills (rather than occupational or professional skills); "the college of arts and sciences"
discipline, field of study, subject area, subject field, bailiwick, subject, field, study - a branch of knowledge; "in what discipline is his doctorate?"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings"
neoclassicism - revival of a classical style (in art or literature or architecture or music) but from a new perspective or with a new motivation
classicalism, classicism - a movement in literature and art during the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe that favored rationality and restraint and strict forms; "classicism often derived its models from the ancient Greeks and Romans"
Romantic Movement, Romanticism - a movement in literature and art during the late 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature rather than civilization; "Romanticism valued imagination and emotion over rationality"
English - the discipline that studies the English language and literature
history - the discipline that records and interprets past events involving human beings; "he teaches Medieval history"; "history takes the long view"
art history - the academic discipline that studies the development of painting and sculpture
chronology - the determination of the actual temporal sequence of past events
beaux arts, fine arts - the study and creation of visual works of art
performing arts - arts or skills that require public performance
Occidentalism - the scholarly knowledge of western cultures and languages and people
Oriental Studies, Orientalism - the scholarly knowledge of Asian cultures and languages and people
philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics
literary study - the humanistic study of literature
library science - the study of the principles and practices of library administration
philology, linguistics - the humanistic study of language and literature
musicology - the scholarly and scientific study of music
Sinology - the study of Chinese history and language and culture
stemmatics, stemmatology - the humanistic discipline that attempts to reconstruct the transmission of a text (especially a text in manuscript form) on the basis of relations between the various surviving manuscripts (sometimes using cladistic analysis); "stemmatology also plays an important role in musicology"; "transcription errors are of decisive importance in stemmatics"
trivium - (Middle Ages) an introductory curriculum at a medieval university involving grammar and logic and rhetoric; considered to be a triple way to eloquence
quadrivium - (Middle Ages) a higher division of the curriculum in a medieval university involving arithmetic and music and geometry and astronomy
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
Unlike the liberal arts, multiculturalism is certain that it knows the truth and therefore feels entitled to tell dissenters to shut up, which, in effect, is what Bowdoin's Gender and Women's Studies department does when it forecloses the possibility of the liberal-arts understanding of gender.
In Florida, however, where researchers followed students from the eighth grade through the end of their educations, 55 percent of those who went to community colleges ended up in liberal-arts or general-studies programs, which also have among the lowest graduation rates and lowest earnings.
In the last few hundred years higher education has been governed by four models: (a) the Christian university, (b) the traditional liberal-arts college, (c) the modern research university, and (d) the commercial university.
The key point is that the more recent models did not simply replace the old models; the liberal-arts college was not replaced by the research university, just as the research university today is not simply being replaced by the commercial university.
Citing Aristotle, Franklin and Einstein as proponents of a broad, liberal-arts education, Finn and Ravitch promote the need for liberal learning as preparatory to the civic life needed for a well-functioning democracy.
Students from 48 states and 32 countries are drawn to the challenge of its liberal-arts curriculum and community spirit.
* how a liberal-arts approach to learning can position RIM managers to play a strategic role within their organizations
Hanover College is a premier private, residential, liberal-arts college for intellectually curious students with diverse backgrounds and interests who seek rigorous academic challenges and who desire to be engaged, responsible members of a close-knit community.
I believe in that richer sense, far more students and parents should be considering a liberal-arts education because it is targeted at providing one with a powerful vocation.
Earlham College, established by the Friends Church in 1847, has 1,100 students in its liberal-arts school.
Among national liberal-arts schools, the second tier (schools 40 through 80) includes DePauw University in Greencastle, Earlham College in Richmond and Wabash College in Crawfordsville.
Reading good literature and studying art may produce a well-rounded person, but you need a practical education to get a good job, liberal-arts students may hear from parents.