freshman

The word “freshman” means a student in their first year at a high school, college, or university. In plain terms, a first-year student, or more broadly, anyone new to a role or institution.

“Freshman” is pronounced FREHSH-muhn (/ˈfɹɛʃ.mən/ in IPA).

Here is “freshman” used in a sentence: “As a freshman, she was still finding her way around campus.”

Words with a similar meaning to “freshman” include fresher, frosh, freshie, grade nine student, grade 9 student and grade-niner.

“Freshman” is a noun.

“Freshman” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the B1 level.

“Freshman” has 2 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: a student in their first year at a high school, college, or university.

In American high schools and universities, a freshman is a student in their first year, while a sophomore is a student in their second year. The sequence continues with junior for the third year and senior for the fourth.

Yes. Freshman is used for students of any gender, so a female first-year student is still called a freshman. Many schools now prefer the neutral term 'first-year student', but freshman remains standard for everyone.

The plural of freshman is freshmen, following the same pattern as man and men. So you would write 'one freshman' but 'three hundred freshmen'.

Not usually. In the UK, new university students are called freshers or first-years, and the opening weeks of term are known as freshers' week. Freshman is chiefly the American term, though it also appears in the extended sense of anyone new to a field, as in 'a freshman senator'.