How to Use graduate in a Sentence

graduate

1 of 3 verb
  • He joined the navy after graduating from high school.
  • He joined the navy after graduating high school.
  • The word has graduated from slang to accepted use.
  • My nephew has graduated from baby food to solid food.
  • She graduated with a degree in history.
  • They both graduated with honors.
  • He graduated from the university last June.
  • He was set to graduate in the spring.
    — Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 27 Feb. 2026
  • Six are set to graduate this spring.
    — Denise Schrier Cetta, CBS News, 15 Mar. 2026
  • That file sent me to graduate school.
    — Andy Molinsky, Forbes.com, 10 May 2026
  • She was set to graduate in May.
    — Ubah Ali, CBS News, 28 Mar. 2026
  • Each of them will graduate with more than just a high school diploma.
    — Briseida Holguin, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026
  • He was supposed to graduate with me.
    — Ishmael Johnson, Dallas Morning News, 7 Feb. 2026
  • Rowe once taught at the high school, and his three children graduated from there.
    — Jim Morris, Los Angeles Times, 11 Feb. 2026
  • Most of the best players from last year had graduated.
    — Andrew Carter, Chicago Tribune, 24 May 2026
  • Sometimes kids graduated and went home, then called from prison.
    — Literary Hub, 26 May 2026
  • Both boys are on track to graduate from Jones High School.
    — Michael Cuglietta, The Orlando Sentinel, 9 June 2026
  • Two years later, he was set to graduate and began thinking about what was next for him.
    — Tess Kenny, Chicago Tribune, 5 Apr. 2026
  • Those younger students are scheduled to graduate this spring.
    — Carmela Guaglianone, NPR, 7 Oct. 2025
  • The tight end is set to graduate in May 2026.
    — Raven Brunner, PEOPLE, 8 Sep. 2025
  • My child is graduating from college this year.
    — Abigail Van Buren, Boston Herald, 6 Sep. 2025
  • By now, many of his friends have already graduated from college and moved on with their lives.
    — Laura Sirikul, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Andrew Painter, who graduated to the adult side of the room years ago, is with them.
    — Matt Gelb, New York Times, 11 Feb. 2026
  • These students are more likely to graduate, too.
    — Calmatters, Daily News, 6 Feb. 2026
  • Horner graduated from high school.
    — Amy McDaniel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Some who did not graduate dropped out because their families moved.
    — Claire Osborn, Austin American Statesman, 28 Feb. 2026
  • His lone goal in those years was to graduate from high school and later get a job to help the family function.
    — Dan Wiederer, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2025
  • Boone said if that goes well, the lefty will likely graduate to a rehab assignment.
    — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 16 Apr. 2026
  • In fact, a handful hadn't even graduated from middle school yet — and one was a toddler!
    — Diana Pearl, PEOPLE, 1 Feb. 2026
  • Very few of us, maybe just like two or three, actually graduated high school.
    — Scooty Nickerson, The Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2024

graduate

2 of 3 noun
  • This is all good news for fresh graduates.
    — Conor Sen, Boston Herald, 8 June 2026
  • Those graduates at least had jobs; many didn’t.
    — Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 15 June 2026
  • Here’s what to buy the recent high school graduate in your life.
    — Jessie Quinn, StyleCaster, 1 May 2026
  • Vivint was, in its own way, a graduate program.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 28 Mar. 2026
  • Ryan, the recent graduate, had been in that class.
    — Lila Shapiro, Vulture, 7 Jan. 2026
  • Know a graduate who’s set to work outdoors or loves winter sports?
    — Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Cut to this fall, when two of the list’s most recent graduates barely made a blip on the big screen.
    — Benjamin Svetkey, HollywoodReporter, 1 Oct. 2025
  • And a squad of graduate students supports them all.
    — New York Times, 12 Feb. 2026
  • But not all recent graduates will have this option.
    — Annie Nova, CNBC, 6 Apr. 2026
  • Over the years, more and more students have hedged their bets on a graduate degree to boost their salaries.
    — Jake Angelo, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2026
  • To enter, graduates have to complete one more test.
    — Lexi Lane, PEOPLE, 25 Apr. 2026
  • So why was a first-year graduate student getting to stand in for an expert?
    — Jt Torres, The Conversation, 6 Feb. 2024
  • High Point has two seniors and a pair of graduates on the roster.
    — ABC News, 21 Mar. 2026
  • Most graduates apply to a lot of roles before landing the right one.
    — Phil Blair, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 May 2026
  • Getting up to speed felt like a return to my graduate student years.
    — Debbie G. Senesky, Scientific American, 17 Oct. 2023
  • The vouchers are for graduates for a ride on their Uber account.
    — Sean Krofssik, Hartford Courant, 8 Mar. 2026
  • Most of that decline was among graduate students.
    — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 8 Jan. 2026
  • Both are Kearny High School graduates.
    — Kirk Kenney, San Diego Union-Tribune, 27 Mar. 2026
  • That means students in many graduate programs will face large funding gaps.
    — Scott White, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • The trade school boasts that over 43% of graduates go on to open their own businesses.
    — Dallasnews.com Staff, Dallas News, 15 June 2023
  • She's also started graduate school and hasn't had much time for dating.
    — Charles Trepany, USA Today, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Within months, a graduate student read it there and alerted a friend who has an indie press.
    — Michael Schulman, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • The shift in graduate enrollment is not all bad news for UC.
    — David Ferrara, Cincinnati Enquirer, 30 Sep. 2025
  • In real life, a fresh college graduate would spend years searching for a decent job.
    — Snigdha Poonam, The Dial, 28 Oct. 2025
  • Students must be Texas residents and graduates of a high school in the state.
    — Dallas Morning News, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Less than 10% of the graduates went on to reoffend.
    — Tony Saavedra, Oc Register, 12 Apr. 2026
  • In all, 38 states are projected to see a drop in the number of graduates.
    — Jeffrey Selingo, The Atlantic, 12 Apr. 2026
  • These are some of the other notable local graduates.
    — Abby Hamblin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Apr. 2026
  • The graduates posed for a group photo of the school’s first graduating class.
    — Doug Ross, Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2026
  • Here's what this year's graduates should know about their federal student loans in light of the recent changes.
    — Annie Nova, CNBC, 19 Apr. 2026

graduate

3 of 3 adjective
  • He is taking graduate classes at the university.
  • Most graduate programs are small.
    — Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Borrowers with loans from graduate school will still have to pay 10%.
    — Ira Porter, The Christian Science Monitor, 26 Jan. 2024
  • There was a fund to pay African Americans to go to graduate school out of state.
    — Carol Sutton Lewis, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2022
  • Many graduate students teach their own classes.
    — Kate Armanini, Chicago Tribune, 30 Apr. 2026
  • Birch and a few graduate students had been reading and discussing a draft of Humphrey’s new book.
    — Nick Romeo, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2023
  • Too little, and only graduate students will be able to follow along.
    — Tim Brinkhof, Big Think, 24 Mar. 2026
  • Moreira brought Richter and Robertson, friends of his from graduate school, in on the project.
    — Leila Sloman, Quanta Magazine, 5 Dec. 2022
  • And further data shows that the number of graduate roles available has declined in the past year.
    — Sawdah Bhaimiya, CNBC, 16 Nov. 2025
  • Is a graduate tax the solution?
    — The Week Uk, TheWeek, 1 Mar. 2026
  • Luis gave up on graduate school, for fear of condemning himself to years of online classes.
    — Eric Klinenberg, TIME, 9 Feb. 2024
  • Reid played for Edwards and later was a graduate assistant coach on his staff.
    — Bryan Schott, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 July 2023
  • Growth, however, has slowed at the graduate level.
    — Anna Esaki-Smith, Forbes.com, 28 Jan. 2026
  • Chalker had a more martial bearing than most graduate students.
    — David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2026
  • Rhodes and Knoop, who are couple, both moved to Reno in the fall and are attending graduate school.
    — Chris Bieri, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Nov. 2022
  • So what’s this system that has sped up five years of research into a week and made graduate students obsolete?
    — IEEE Spectrum, 9 Feb. 2024
  • The ad called for the supervision of a team of graduate assistants or interns.
    — Arkansas Online, 30 Apr. 2026
  • The district’s larger goal is to help students identify a post-graduate career field that fits their life goals.
    — Samuel O’Neal 24, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Apr. 2026
  • The villa became a study retreat for graduate students and others.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 22 June 2023
  • While graduate students could previously borrow loans up to the cost of their degree, the new rules set limits.
    — Heather Hollingsworth, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2026
  • While graduate students could previously borrow loans up to the cost of their degree, the new rules set limits.
    — ABC News, 25 June 2026
  • As a result, many graduate students rely on loans to fund their education.
    — Kamaron McNair, CNBC, 3 Apr. 2026
  • And some of the biggest changes on this front will affect graduate students and parent borrowers this summer.
    — Lisa Hagen, Hartford Courant, 11 Feb. 2026
  • New professional and graduate students will have to contend with stricter loan limits.
    — Tami Luhby, CNN Money, 1 July 2026
  • Frank, eight years Robert’s junior, wept when his older brother left for graduate school in Europe.
    — Kc Cole, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Mar. 2024
  • That means that many graduate students could turn to private student loans to help finance their education.
    — Claire Rafford, IndyStar, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Gary died of a genetic illness while Klinsky was just in graduate school at Harvard.
    — Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Banks is a graduate transfer who played in 36 games for Ohio State, starting 14 of them.
    — Mark Heim | [email protected], al, 1 Oct. 2022
  • Her job was to set up a training program for graduate students who would help tenants overcome the obsessions that set them up for eviction.
    — Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 26 Mar. 2023
  • Can someone’s graduate thesis at Oberlin be far behind?
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 17 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'graduate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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