faculty

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: fac=ul=ty

CIDE DICTIONARY

faculty, n. [F. facult, L. facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.].

•  Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.  [1913 Webster]

  "But know that in the soul
  Are many lesser faculties that serve
  Reason as chief."  [1913 Webster]

  "What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty !"  [1913 Webster]
•  Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.  [1913 Webster]

  "He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament."  [1913 Webster]
•  Power; prerogative or attribute of office.  [1913 Webster]

  "This Duncan
  Hath borne his faculties so meek."  [1913 Webster]
•  Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.  [1913 Webster]

  "The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise."  [1913 Webster]

  "It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges."  [1913 Webster]
•  A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.  [1913 Webster]

Dean of faculty. See under Dean. -- Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See under Advocate.

Syn. -- Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

faculty, n. (pl. -ies)
1 an aptitude or ability for a particular activity.
2 an inherent mental or physical power.
3 a a group of university departments concerned with a major division of knowledge (faculty of modern languages). b US the staff of a university or college. c a branch of art or science; those qualified to teach it.
4 the members of a particular profession, esp. medicine.
5 authorization, esp. by a Church authority.

Idiom

Faculty of Advocates Law the society constituting the Scottish Bar.

Etymology

ME f. OF facult{eacute} f. L facultas -tatis f. facilis easy

THESAURUS

faculty

ability, ableness, absolute power, absolutism, adequacy, adroitness, appurtenance, aptitude, aptness, authority, authorization, bent, birthright, bump, caliber, capability, capableness, capacity, claim, cleverness, competence, competency, conjugal right, consciousness, constituted authority, delegated authority, demand, department, dexterity, discipline, dispensation, divine right, dower, dowry, droit, due, efficacy, efficiency, endowment, equipment, facility, faculties, fitness, flair, forte, function, genius, gift, inalienable right, indirect authority, inherent authority, instinct, intellectual gifts, intellectuals, interest, jus divinum, knack, lawful authority, leaning, legal authority, legitimacy, liberty, long suit, makings, members, metier, natural endowment, natural gift, natural right, nose, parts, penchant, permission, personnel, potential, power, powers, predilection, prerogative, prescription, presumptive right, pretense, pretension, privilege, proclivity, professorate, professordom, professoriate, professors, proficiency, propensity, proper claim, property, property right, qualification, quality, regality, right, rightful authority, royal prerogative, sanction, school, senses, skill, speciality, staff, strong flair, strong point, sufficiency, susceptibility, talent, talents, the goods, the say, the say-so, the stuff, title, turn, vested authority, vested interest, vested right, vicarious authority, what it takes, wits

ROGET THESAURUS

faculty

Business

N business, occupation, employment, pursuit, what one is doing, what one is about, affair, concern, matter, case, matter in hand, irons in the fire, thing to do, agendum, task, work, job, chore, errand, commission, mission, charge, care, duty, part, role, cue, province, function, lookout, department, capacity, sphere, orb, field, line, walk, walk of life, beat, round, routine, race, career, office, place, post, chargeship, incumbency, living, situation, berth, employ, service, engagement, undertaking, vocation, calling, profession, cloth, faculty, industry, art, industrial arts, craft, mystery, handicraft, trade, exercise, work, avocation, press of business, businesslike, workaday, professional, official, functional, busy, on hand, in hand, in one's hands, afoot, on foot, on the anvil, going on, acting, in the course of business, all in one's day's work, professionally Adj, a business with an income at its heels, amoto quaeramus seria ludo, par negotiis neque supra.

Skill

N skill, skillfulness, address, dexterity, dexterousness, adroitness, expertness, proficiency, competence, technical competence, craft, callidity, facility, knack, trick, sleight, mastery, mastership, excellence, panurgy, ambidexterity, ambidextrousness, sleight of hand, seamanship, airmanship, marksmanship, horsemanship, rope-dancing, accomplishment, acquirement, attainment, art, science, technicality, technology, practical knowledge, technical knowledge, knowledge of the world, world wisdom, savoir faire, tact, mother wit, discretion, finesse, craftiness, management, self-help, cleverness, talent, ability, ingenuity, capacity, parts, talents, faculty, endowment, forte, turn, gift, genius, intelligence, sharpness, readiness, invention, aptness, aptitude, turn for, capacity for, genius for, felicity, capability, curiosa felicitas, qualification, habilitation, proficient, masterpiece, coup de maitre, chef d'euvre, tour de force, good stroke, skillful, dexterous, adroit, expert, apt, handy, quick, deft, ready, gain, slick, smart, proficient, good at, up to, at home in, master of, a good hand at, au fait, thoroughbred, masterly, crack, accomplished, conversant, experienced, practiced, skilled, hackneyed, up in, well up in, in practice, in proper cue, competent, efficient, qualified, capable, fitted, fit for, up to the mark, trained, initiated, prepared, primed, finished, clever, cute, able, ingenious, felicitous, gifted, talented, endowed, inventive, shrewd, sharp, on the ball, cunning, alive to, up to snuff, not to be caught with chaff, discreet, neat-handed, fine-fingered, nimble-fingered, ambidextrous, sure- footed, cut out for, fitted for, technical, artistic, scientific, daedalian, shipshape, workman- like, business-like, statesman-like, skillfully, well, artistically, with skill, with consummate skill, secundum artem, suo Marte, to the best of one's abilities, ars celare artem, artes honorabit, celui qui veut celui-la peut, c'est une grande habilite que de savoir cacher son, expertus metuit, es bildet ein Talent sich in der Stille sich ein C, heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, or the hand to execute, if you have lemons, make lemonade.

Power

N power, potency, potentiality, jiva, puissance, might, force, energy, dint, right hand, right arm, ascendency, sway, control, prepotency, prepollence, almightiness, omnipotence, authority, strength, ability, ableness, competency, efficacy, efficiency, productivity, expertise (skill), validity, cogency, enablement, vantage ground, influence, pressure, conductivity, elasticity, gravity, electricity, magnetism, galvanism, voltaic electricity, voltaism, electromagnetism, atomic power, nuclear power, thermonuclear power, fuel cell, hydraulic power, water power, hydroelectric power, solar power, solar energy, solar panels, tidal power, wind power, attraction, vis inertiae, vis mortua, vis viva, potential energy, dynamic energy, dynamic friction, dynamic suction, live circuit, live rail, live wire, capability, capacity, quid valeant humeri quid ferre recusent, faculty, quality, attribute, endowment, virtue, gift, property, qualification, susceptibility, powerful, puissant, potential, capable, able, equal to, up to, cogent, valid, efficient, productive, effective, effectual, efficacious, adequate, competent, multipotent, plenipotent, omnipotent, almighty, forcible, (energetic), influential, productive, powerfully, by virtue of, by dint of, a toute force, dos moi pou sto kai kino ten gen, eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, fortis cadere cedere non potest.