Definition

1. Noun:
   • The collective teaching and administrative staff of a university, college, or school: "Faculty" refers to all the teachers and often the administrators within an educational institution.
   • An inherent mental or physical power: "Faculty" can also mean a natural ability of the mind or body, such as the ability to see, hear, reason, or remember.

Examples of Usage

• Noun (Teaching Staff):
  • The university faculty voted on the new curriculum.
  • She is a respected member of the history faculty.
• Noun (Inherent Power):
  • The accident impaired his faculty of speech.
  • Reason is a uniquely human faculty.

Advanced Usage

• "The Faculty": When capitalized and used with "the," it can informally refer to a specific professional group, most commonly medical doctors.
  • He was treated by the best of the Faculty.
• "In full possession of one's faculties": An idiom meaning to have all one's mental abilities functioning normally.
  • Despite his age, he is in full possession of his faculties.

Variants and Related Words

• Facultative (adj): Optional; granting permission or power. In biology, describing an organism that can live under different conditions.
  • Attendance is facultative for this meeting.
  • A facultative anaerobe can live with or without oxygen.

Synonyms

• Teaching Staff: Academics, professors, instructors, educators.
• Inherent Power: Capacity, capability, aptitude, sense (e.g., sense of smell), function.

Related Phrases

• Faculty member: An individual who is part of the teaching staff.
  • Every faculty member has an office on campus.
• Faculty meeting: A meeting for the teaching staff of an institution.
  • The new policy was announced at the faculty meeting.

Noun

1. the body of teachers and administrators at a school
   • the dean addressed the letter to the entire staff of the university
2. one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind