Faculty definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (28)

American Heritage Dictionary (9)

noun An inherent power or ability.
noun Any of the powers or capacities possessed by the human mind. See Synonyms at ability.
noun The ability to perform or act.

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Century Dictionary (16)

A specific power, mental or physical; a special capacity for any particular kind of action or affection; natural capability: sometimes, but rarely, restricted to an active power: as, the faculty of perception or of speech; a faculty for mimicry: sometimes extended to inanimate things: as, the faculty of a wedge; the faculty of simples. See theory of faculties, below. Forget not to call as well the Physician best acquainted with your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty. Bacon, Regimen of Health (ed. 1887). To crave your favour with a begging knee, Were to distrust the writer's faculty. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, Epil. How carelessly do you behave yourself When you should call all your best faculties To counsel in you! Fletcher and Rowley, Maid in the Mill, iv. 1. These powers of the mind, viz., of perceiving and of preferring, are usually called … faculties of the mind. Locke, Human Understanding, II. xxi. 6. Oh! many are the Poets that are sown By nature; Men endowed with highest gifts, The vision and the faculty divine, Yet wanting the accomplishment of verse. Wordsworth, Excursion, i.
A power or privilege conferred; bestowed capacity for the performance of any act or function; ability or authority acquired in any way. In Roman Catholic ecclesiastical law a faculty is specifically an authorization by a superior conferring certain ecclesiastical rights upon a subordinate. The most important faculties are those conferred by the pope upon bishops. [Archaic except in the latter use.] This Duncan Hath borne his faculties so meek. Shak., Macbeth, i. 7. John de Burg, chancellor of Cambridge University, a. d. 1385, tells us that all vestments are to be blessed either by the bishop, or by one having the faculty to do so. Rock, Church of our Fathers, ii. 265. Can the [royal] arms be legally removed, when a church is restored, or at any other time, at the will of the incumbent? or is a faculty required? A. J. Bedell. N. and Q., 7th ser., VI. 89.
A body of persons on whom are conferred specific professional powers; all the authorized members of a learned profession collectively, or a body associated or acting together in a particular place or institution; when used absolutely (the faculty), the medical profession: as, the learned faculty of the law; the faculty of a college; the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. Of all faculties they have great store of bookes in that library, but especially of Divinity. Coryat, Crudities, I. 67. There I saw Dr. Gilbert, Sr Wm Paddy's, and other pictures of men famous in their faculty. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 3, 1662. In vain do they snuff and hot towels apply, And other means used by the faculty try. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, I. 225. The obstinacy of Lord Chesterfield's deafness had induced him to yield to the repeated advice of the faculty to try whether any benefit could be obtained by a journey to Spa. Maty, Chesterfield, § 6.

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(Many more on the faculty will be announced later this summer.)
Other faculty are adventurous, and were looking for a place overseas to do a sabbatical; when we opened the Qatar campus and they discovered that they could stay with Carnegie Mellon while living in an interesting environment, they jumped at the chance. — News
Also on the faculty is the ex-schoolteacher, entrusted with the task of teaching legal English.
Another measure of the quality of our faculty is the faculty's impressive per capita ranking for such major competitive awards as
His status on the faculty is also at risk should he be seen as delivering low-quality care. — WSJ.com: What's News US

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Used in the Same Context

ability · intelligence · instinct · intellect · quality · capacity · perception · imagination · insight · gift · principle · phenomenon

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English faculte, from Old French, from Latin facultās, power, ability, from facilis, easy; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English faculte, power, property, from Old French faculte, French faculté = Provencal facultat = Spanish facultad = Portuguese faculdade = Italian facoltà (-D. fakulteit, in all senses, = German facultät = Danish Swedish fakultet, in sense 3), from Latin faculta(t-)s, capability, ability, skill, abundance, plenty, stock, goods, property, Middle Latin also a body of teachers, another form of facilita(t-)s, easiness, facility, etc., from facul, another form of facilis, easy, facile: see facile.

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