Courses

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɔːsɪz/

Definitions

1. Units of study offered to students in schools or universities ; the directions or routes taken by moving objects or people ; separate parts of a formal meal served one after another
2. Structured programs of instruction on specific subjects ; the tracks or courses that something follows as it moves ; individual segments of a meal eaten in sequence
3. Sessions or series of lessons on particular topics ; ways or channels along which something travels ; ordered servings that form a complete meal

Etymology: The meal sense of "course" is the one that most surprises people: a dish served in sequence, as in "a three-course dinner," shares a root with words meaning simply running. The plural "courses" is the form of "course," which came into Middle English from Old French "cours," itself taken from the Latin "cursus," meaning "course of a race." That Latin noun comes from "currere," "to run," which goes back to an Indo-European root meaning the same. From that physical sense of running along a route came the idea of a path or channel, the way a river or a journey follows a fixed line. Extending that notion of progression over time gave us a sequence of events, and from there a sequence of dishes laid out one after another at a meal, and a set of lessons taken in order toward a goal.

Synonyms: classes, subjects, curriculums, programs, modules

Antonyms: disorganization, chaos, randomness, disorder, confusion