alma mater

See also: Alma Mater

English

Etymology

From Latin alma māter (literally “nourishing mother”). Derives from the full name ("Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna") of the oldest European university, the University of Bologna, founded in 1088.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌælmə ˈmeɪtə(ɹ)/, /ˌælmə ˈmɑːtə(ɹ)/, /ˌɑːlmə ˈmɑːtə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

alma mater (plural almae matres or alma maters)

1. A school, college, or university which a person has graduated from or attended.
   • 2021 December 29, Stephen Roberts, “Stories and facts behind railway plaques: Evesham (1870)”, in RAIL, number 947, page 58:

     I’m in the place where I grew up, where my alma mater is.

   • 2025 July 25, Matt Egan, “How Trump’s mass deportations could backfire on the American economy by shrinking paychecks”, in CNN Business‎^[1]:

     However, a new analysis from Trump’s alma mater suggests that his immigration crackdown – a centerpiece of his second term – could do the exact opposite.

2. A school’s anthem or song.

Derived terms

• matriotism

Related terms

• alimentary
• alimony
• alumnus
• mater
• maternal
• maternity
• matriculate

Translations

graduated school

• Arabic: الجامعة الأم
• Bulgarian: а́лма-ма́тер f (álma-máter)
• Catalan: alma mater (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 母校 (mou⁵ haau⁶)

  Mandarin: 母校 (zh) (mǔxiào)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: alma mater (nl) f
• Finnish: alma mater (fi)
• French: alma mater (fr) f
• Galician: alma máter f
• German: Alma Mater (de) f
• Indonesian: almamater (id)
• Japanese: 母校 (ja) (ぼこう, bokō), アルマ・マータ (aruma-māta)
• Korean: 모교(母校) (ko) (mogyo)
• Polish: Alma Mater (pl) f
• Portuguese: alma mater f
• Russian: а́льма-ма́тер (ru) f (álʹma-mátɛr)
• Spanish: alma mater f
• Tagalog: inang-diwa
• Turkish: tahsil (tr)
• Uyghur: ئانا مەكتەپ (ana mektep)

school anthem

• Bulgarian: учи́лищен химн m (učílišten himn)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 校歌 (zh) (xiàogē)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: koulun laulu
• Japanese: 校歌 (ja) (kōka)
• Portuguese: hino da escola m
• Spanish: please add this translation if you can

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin alma māter (“feeding mother”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɑl.maː ˈmaː.tɛr/, /ˌɑl.maː ˈmaː.tər/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: al‧ma ma‧ter

Noun

alma mater f (plural almae matres or alma maters, no diminutive)

1. alma mater (university one attended, especially one from which one has graduated)

Latin

Etymology

From alma (“nourishing”) + māter (“mother”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈaɫ.ma ˈmaː.tɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈal.ma ˈmaː.ter]

Noun

alma māter f (genitive almae mātris); third declension

1. (Ancient Rome) mother goddess
2. (Medieval Christianity) Virgin Mary

Declension

First-declension adjective with a third-declension noun.

	singular	plural
nominative	alma māter	almae mātrēs
genitive	almae mātris	almārum mātrum
dative	almae mātrī	almīs mātribus
accusative	almam mātrem	almās mātrēs
ablative	almā mātre	almīs mātribus
vocative	alma māter	almae mātrēs

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin alma māter.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.mɐ ˈma.teʁ/ [ˈaʊ̯.mɐ ˈma.teh]

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.mɐ ˈma.teʁ/ [ˈaʊ̯.mɐ ˈma.teh]
  • (São Paulo) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.mɐ ˈma.teɾ/ [ˈaʊ̯.mɐ ˈma.teɾ]
  • (Rio de Janeiro) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.mɐ ˈma.teʁ/ [ˈaʊ̯.mɐ ˈma.teχ]
  • (Caipira) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.mɐ ˈma.teɻ/ [ˈaʊ̯.mɐ ˈma.teɻ]
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈaw.ma ˈma.teʁ/ [ˈaʊ̯.ma ˈma.teh]

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈal.mɐ ˈma.tɛɾ/ [ˈaɫ.mɐ ˈma.tɛɾ]

Noun

alma mater f (invariable)

1. a person who provides for another
2. homeland (place where one was born)
3. alma mater (school or college from which an individual has graduated)

Further reading

• “alma mater”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Latin alma māter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌalma ˈmateɾ/ [ˌal.ma ˈma.t̪eɾ]

• Audio (El Salvador):

  (file)

• Syllabification: al‧ma ma‧ter

Noun

alma mater f (plural alma mater)

1. alma mater

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

Further reading

• “alma mater”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025