Faculty: A Mental Power, a University Division, and a Staff Room
Faculty means an ability of the mind, a branch of a university, and in American English the teaching staff. All three come from one Latin word for capability.
Faculty carries three senses that look unrelated until you see the Latin. *Facultas* means capability — so a faculty is a power of the mind, a branch of a university that teaches one field of capability, and, in American usage, the people who do the teaching.
- A mental or physical ability. *He kept all his faculties.*
- A division of a university. *The faculty of law.*
- The teaching staff (American). *A faculty meeting.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | faculty | The faculty of speech. |
| Plural | faculties | In full possession of her faculties. |
| Adjective | facultative | A facultative process. |
| Related | facility | A facility for languages. |
| Related | department | The history department. |
How it is used in a sentence
- At ninety he still had all his faculties.Plural, meaning mental powers.
- She joined the faculty of medicine.British: a university division.
- Faculty and students attended.American: the teaching staff as a group.
Faculty or facility?
- Faculty — an ability you are born with or retain
- Facility — a knack acquired, or a building and its equipment
- Aptitude — natural suitability for something
- Capacity — how much can be done or held
- Department — the smaller unit inside a faculty
From Old French *faculte*, from Latin *facultas*, capability, from *facilis*, easy, from *facere*, to do. English used it for university divisions from the Middle Ages, when a faculty was the body qualified to teach a subject.
Faculty or department?
A faculty is the larger grouping; departments sit inside it. In American English faculty usually means the staff instead.
What does *in full possession of his faculties* mean?
Mentally competent. It is a legal formula about capacity to make decisions.