Diploma Definition: Sentences, Interesting Idioms, and Quiz

Native speakers use the definition of “diploma” and the term itself to talk about qualifications. For example, when they are looking for a job or applying to a university course.

Learning related terms and “diploma” synonyms will make your English rich. You will not be stuck with one word for every sentence.

Related nouns: degree qualification

Synonyms (contextual): certificate

Common collocations: get a diploma college diploma

You will hear many combinations with this term that English speakers put in their daily communication, emails, chats in Instagram, reels, and even TikTok videos.

With adjectives: professional diploma university diploma

With verbs: earn a diploma award a diploma bring a diploma

With nouns (noun + noun): diploma holder diploma ceremony

You will not find traditional idioms with fun or unusual meanings when it comes to the word “diploma.” Still there are some typical phrases that contain this term and sound natural.

• Earn a diploma — hard work for getting a degree.

  Marie earned this diploma by studying for 14 hours a day.

• Hold a diploma in (something) — qualification in some subject.

  Emma knows what she is talking about. She holds a diploma in nursing.

• Diploma holder — a person who has a certificate about education.

  Everyone in my family is a diploma holder.

Take this simple quiz to memorize the description of “diploma.” They are fun, engaging, and based on information you read above.

You may be surprised with the “diploma” spelling across different languages. 

This item has been around for centuries, bringing more educated people to our world (or proving they studied something). Here are some facts to surprise you.

• The word “diploma” means “folded paper” in Greek.

  In ancient Greece, official documents were folded in half, and the term “diploma” originally referred to this physical action rather than education itself.

• Harvard gave out the first American diploma in 1645.

  James Ward was the first known graduate to receive an American diploma. Only 29 diplomas from that early period are known to still exist today.

• The first woman to receive a diploma in America graduated in 1840.

  Catherine Elizabeth Brewer Benson earned her diploma from Wesleyan College in Georgia, marking an important milestone in the history of women’s education.

• Diplomas were once written entirely by hand.

  Before printing became widespread, diplomas were carefully handwritten, often decorated with seals and calligraphy, making each document unique and time-consuming to produce.

Writers, speakers, poets, all of them put this term in texts to show their understanding of this certification, or to use its meaning to describe something else.