tuition

Etymology

From Old French [Term?], from Latin tuitiō (“guard, protection, defense”), from tuēri (“to watch, guard, see, observe”). Compare intuition, tutor.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tyo͞oĭ'shən, IPA^(key): /tjuːˈɪʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England); /t͡ʃuːˈɪʃən/:

    (file)

• (General American, Canada) enPR: to͞oĭ'shən, IPA^(key): /tuˈɪʃən/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /tjʉːˈɪʃən/, /t͡ʃʉːˈɪʃən/
• (India, Malaysia, Singapore) enPR: tyo͞o'shən, IPA^(key): /ˈtjuːʃən/^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

Noun

tuition (countable and uncountable, plural tuitions)

1. The training or instruction provided by a teacher or tutor.
   • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

     Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. […] There are no inspectors, no exams until the age of 18, no school league tables, no private tuition industry, no school uniforms. […]

   1. (India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia) Paid private classes taken outside of formal education; tutoring. (also used attributively)

      tuition classes

      • 2021 August 18, Qiu Guanhua, “Forum: Heavy reliance on tuition to boost performance is not healthy”, in The Straits Times‎, Singapore, archived from the original on 28 December 2022:

        Tuition in the past was like taking medicine and you sent children for it only if they were doing poorly in a subject.

2. (Canada, US) A sum of money paid for instruction (such as in a high school, boarding school, university, or college); tuition fees.

   These rosemaling workshops are no place for anyone who wants to pester me or the students with the "white privilege" card, inter alia. Therefore, I reserve the right to refund the tuition of such men and women, kick them out the door, and bar them from at least two of my future events.

   Synonym: (UK) tuition fees

3. (archaic) Care, guardianship.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     BENEDICK. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and so I commit you—
     CLAUDIO. To the tuition of God: from my house, if I had it,—
     DON PEDRO. The sixth of July: your loving friend, Benedick.
     BENEDICK. Nay, mock not, mock not.

References

Further reading

• “tuition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tuition”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.