Word.ws English Dictionary

Erasmus

/ɪˈɹæzməs/

Erasmus proper noun: desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam), a Dutch humanist and theologian. Also the ellipsis of Erasmus Programme.

Proper noun

Erasmus

  1. Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam), a Dutch humanist and theologian.
  2. A male given name from Ancient Greek, rare in English.

Noun

Erasmus (plural Erasmuses)

  1. An exchange student taking part in an Erasmus Programme.
  2. A study period as part of the Erasmus Programme.

Also used as

Erasmus is also the ellipsis of Erasmus Programme.

Forms of Erasmus

pluralErasmuses

Origin of Erasmus

From Medieval Latin Erasmus. The EU student exchange programme is named after Erasmus of Rotterdam, and also a backronym for “European [Community] Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students”.

Questions about Erasmus

What does Erasmus mean?
Erasmus means desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (known as Erasmus or Erasmus of Rotterdam), a Dutch humanist and theologian.
What part of speech is Erasmus?
Erasmus can be a proper noun or a noun.
How do you pronounce Erasmus?
Erasmus is pronounced /ɪˈɹæzməs/.

Words near Erasmus in the dictionary

  1. erasively
  2. Eraskh
  3. Erasmian
  4. Erasmians
  5. Erasmine
  6. Erasmus
  7. Erasmuses
  8. erastai
  9. erastes
  10. Erastian
  11. Erastianism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Erasmus (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Erasmus.wav.

Cite this entry: “Erasmus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/erasmus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.