ˈfakəltē, -ti noun
( -es )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English faculte, from Middle French faculté, from Medieval Latin & Latin; Medieval Latin facultat-, facultas branch of learning, academic faculty, from Latin, ability, power, abundance, supply, property, from Old Latin facul (neuter of Latin facilis easily done, easy) + Latin -tat-, -tas -ty — more at facile
1.
a. obsolete : a branch of learning
b. : a branch of teaching or learning in an institution usually involving the interaction of several academic departments and providing education leading to a particular degree
in medieval universities the faculties usually recognized were theology, law, medicine, and arts
c. archaic : something in which one is trained or qualified (as an art, craft, trade, or profession)
2.
a. : the holders of graduate degrees and often the student candidates for degrees in theology, law, medicine, or arts
b. : the members of a profession or calling
the medical faculty
c. : the teaching staff and those members of the administrative staff having academic rank in a college, university, or other educational institution or one of its divisions
an excellent mathematics faculty
3. : pecuniary state as evidenced by ability to pay ; often : means , property , resources
the levying of faculty taxes
4.
a. : ability to act or do whether inborn or cultivated
man … how infinite in faculty — Shakespeare
b. : an inherent capability, power, or function — now used chiefly of the living body or its parts
the faculty of hearing
the digestive faculty
c. : one of the powers or agencies into which psychologists formerly divided the mind (as will, reason, instinct) and through the interaction of which they endeavored to explain all mental phenomena
d. obsolete : personal characteristics or capacity : disposition
e. : natural aptitude
he has a faculty for saying the right thing
f. : executive ability : competence
a natural faculty for managing a household
g. : a special mental endowment
Coleridge employed his analytical faculty frequently and brilliantly upon the works of Shakespeare — James Benziger
5.
a. : power, authority, or prerogative given or conferred (as by a superior)
by its constituting authority the state has the faculty to define treason
b. : a permit from the consistory in the Church of England without which no considerable alterations can be made in a church's fabric, ornaments, or monuments
c. : a right, authority, license, or dispensation granted or delegated by ecclesiastical authority — often plural in constr. even when sing. in meaning
d. Scots law : a power or ability created by one to be exercised at any time by another in accordance with the terms of the instrument creating it ; specifically : a power to make provision for the support of someone or to apportion or appoint property in which the holder of the power need not necessarily have any ownership
Synonyms: see gift