matriculate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 5, 2026 is: matriculate • \muh-TRIK-yuh-layt\  • verb To matriculate is to enroll or be enrolled as a student, especially at a college or university. // She matriculated at the Rhode Island School of Design and began classes in the fall. // A spokesperson for the college said the school is expected to matriculate approximately 1,000 students for the fall semester. See the entry > Examples: "Fresh off the heels of graduation from high school, many rising freshmen are choosing to step off of the treadmill for a year before matriculating in college." — DJ Didonna, Time, 13 July 2026 Did you know? Anybody who has had basic Latin knows that alma mater, a fancy term for the school you attended, comes from a phrase that means "fostering mother." If mater means "mother," then matriculate probably has something to do with a school nurturing you just like good old mom, right? Not exactly. If you go back far enough, matriculate is distantly related to the Latin mater, but its maternal associations were lost long ago—even in terms of Latin history. It is more closely related to the Late Latin word matricula, which means "public roll or register." Matricula has more to do with being enrolled than being mothered, but it is the diminutive form of the Latin noun matrix, which in Late Latin was used in the sense of "list" or "register" and earlier referred to female animals kept for the purposes of breeding.