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semester

UK/sɪˈmɛstə/US/sɪˈmɛstɚ/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #3,091 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: semesters

A semester is one half of the school or university year. You choose your courses at the start of it and sit the exams at the end, and then it happens again.

There are two in a year, each four or five months long, and they have names: the fall semester and the spring semester in America, the autumn and spring semesters elsewhere. This is where British and American English part company — British universities mostly run three terms, so a student in Leeds says last term where a student in Boston says last semester. The words you meet around it are semester abroad, semester break, and end-of-semester exams. If you talk about a semester in a British school, you will be understood and gently corrected.

Definitions of semester

  1. 1nounsemesterOne of the two main periods into which a school or university year is divided.B1+

    “She is taking four courses this semester.”

semester is a division of the academic year.

Also accepted in games: term

Where it comes from

Semester came into English from German Semester, from New Latin sēmestris, "lasting six months", built from sex, "six", and mēnsis, "month". Half a year is what the word promises, which is generous — most semesters run out of teaching well before month six.

  1. New Latin

    sēmestris — lasting six months

  2. German

    Semester

  3. English, today

    semester

Built from

  • sex · Latin — six
  • mēnsis · Latin — month

From German Semester, from New Latin sēmestris (“lasting six months”), from sex (“six”) + mēnsis (“month”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School & Learning, School Subjects

Practise this word

semester in the wild

  • The association football championships of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) are usually held during the second semester of the school year.

    UAAP football championships

  • The University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) taekwondo tournament was held before in the second semester of the academic year.

    UAAP taekwondo championships

  • The upcoming ordinary meetings are scheduled by the end of each semester, by the issuance of a call letter.

    List of European Council meetings

  • The winner of the fall 2011 semester of NASCAR Kinetics: Marketing in Motion was the University of Central Florida.

    NASCAR Kinetics

  • Each semester, approximately 30-50 North American students study at AIT.

    Aquincum Institute of Technology

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.