semester

«semester» in Mova's school dictionary: one of the two halves of a school or college year — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a semester, semesters)

meaning for a pupil

1) A semester is one of the two halves of a school or college year. tree →

2) It is a period of learning, usually about four or five months long, with its own classes and tests. tree →

sense in the lessons

Used mostly in the USA, Canada and at universities everywhere: «first semester», «fall semester», «spring semester», «this semester». In the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand schools usually say «term» instead, and a year has three or four terms.

examples

• The new semester starts next week. tree →
• We study the solar system in the first semester. tree →
• My sister is spending a semester at a college far away. tree →
• Our grades come home at the end of the semester. tree →
• How many classes are you taking this semester? tree →
• In Australia my cousin says «term» instead of «semester». tree →
• The spring semester ends with a big science fair. tree →

note

Countable noun: «a semester, two semesters». Semester means half a year of school, so a school year has 2 semesters; a «term» can be a third or a quarter of the year. In maths problems, 2 semesters = 1 school year. Stress: se-MES-ter.

In the corpora

• Australia and New Zealand have four school terms a year, the UK and Ireland three, and many US schools two semesters.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «semester» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.