classics

The word “classics” means the academic study of ancient Greek and Latin language, literature, and history. In plain terms, the university subject devoted to studying ancient Greece and Rome.

Here is “classics” used in a sentence: “She majored in classics at Oxford.”

“Classics” is a noun.

“Classics” is a fairly common word in modern English.

Both study the ancient Greek and Roman world. "Classics" traditionally emphasizes the languages themselves, reading Greek and Latin literature in the original, while "classical studies" or "classical civilization" often covers the history, culture, and literature in translation, without requiring the ancient languages.

Classics is one specific subject within the humanities, focused on the language, literature, and history of ancient Greece and Rome. The humanities is the much broader group of subjects that studies human culture, including history, philosophy, and literature, of which classics is a single branch.

Traditionally, yes. Classics centers on ancient Greek and Latin language alongside the literature and history of those cultures. Many modern courses also offer related pathways that study the ancient world in translation, but the core discipline of classics is rooted in the two ancient languages.

In this academic sense, classics is the study of ancient Greek and Latin language, literature, and history. This differs from "the classics" used loosely to mean great, long-admired books or films of any period, such as classic novels, which is a broader, everyday use of the word.