trivium
/ˈtɹɪviəm/
trivium noun: the lower division of the liberal arts in a medieval university; grammar, logic, and rhetoric. Also the singular of trivia.
Noun
trivium (plural triviums or trivia)
- The lower division of the liberal arts in a medieval university; grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
- Surely some demon must possess the lad, / Who showed more wit than ever school-boy had, / And learned his Trivium thus without the rod; / But Alcuin said it was the grace of God.1873 August, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “[I. Tales of a Wayside Inn.] The Student’s Tale. Emma and Eginhard.”, in Aftermath, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields...
- As to the nature of his studies, there can be no doubt that he [Dante] went through the trivium (grammar, dialectic, rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) of the then ordinary university course.1876, James Russell Lowell, Among My Books, Second series
- The three anterior ambulacra of echinoderms, collectively.
Also used as
trivium is also the singular of trivia.
Forms of trivium
| plural | triviums |
|---|---|
| plural | trivia |
Origin of trivium
PIE word *tréyes Borrowed from Latin trivium.
Words formed from trivium
Questions about trivium
- What does trivium mean?
- Trivium means the lower division of the liberal arts in a medieval university; grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
- What part of speech is trivium?
- Trivium is a noun.
- How do you pronounce trivium?
- Trivium is pronounced /ˈtɹɪviəm/.
- What is the plural of trivium?
- The plural of trivium is triviums.
Words near trivium in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trivium (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:
Cite this entry: “trivium.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trivium. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.