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“alumnus”
alumna, alumnae, alumnus, alumni
alumna (singular) (uh LUHM nuh) (noun)
A female graduate: Alicia's mother is an alumna of the University of California.
alumnae (plural) (uh LUHM nee) (noun)
Female graduates: Adrian's two sisters are both alumnae of Alpha High School.
alumnus (singular) (uh LUHM nuhs) (noun)
A male graduate: Clyde was an alumnus of the University of Iowa.
alumni (plural) (uh LUHM nigh) (noun)
Male graduates: All of the graduates at the commencement were alumni because it was a males-only university.
Stacy's parents were alumni of the same college, graduating at different years.
Darren's mother was an alumna (1934) and she often got together for lunch with her fellow alumnae.
Monica's father was an alumnus (1935) whose fellow alumni would get together occasionally to go to football games.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Confusing Words Clarified: Group A; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc.
(page 5)
alumnus (masculine, singular)
Foster child; former student, as of an alma mater.
This entry is located in the following unit:
Latin Proverbs, Mottoes, Phrases, and Words: Group A
(page 15)
alumnus (singular) (uh LUHM nuhs)
A male graduate: "He was an alumnus of the University of Iowa."
Alumnus means both "foster child" and "pupil" in Latin. Its modern meaning of school graduate or ex-student first appeared in the 18th century and is not used very often outside of North America.