Faculty or faculties?

Question

Hallo,

When faculty refers to Teacher what does it exactly mean?

Does it mean a group of teachers or a single teacher?

Can I say

'he is a great faculty in ecience'?
Or

' we have great faculties in our school'?

Thanks

bubu

MountainHiker · Accepted Answer

Bubu,

From GuruNet.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
fac·ul·ty (fak'?l-te)
n., pl. -ties.
An inherent power or ability.
Any of the powers or capacities possessed by the human mind. See synonyms at ability.
The ability to perform or act.

Any of the divisions or comprehensive branches of learning at a college or university: the faculty of law.
The teachers and instructors within such a division.
A body of teachers.
All of the members of a learned profession: the medical faculty.
Authorization granted by authority; conferred power.
Archaic. An occupation; a trade.
[Middle English faculte, from Old French, from Latin facultas, power, ability, from facilis, easy.]

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2003 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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I am accustomed to seeing faculty used to group a specific body of professors and knowledge.

For example,

MIT has a great engineering faculty. The engineering professors at MIT all belong to the same "faculty".

Harvard has a terrific business faculty. Similarly for Harvard Business School professors.

But, you can also say, "Bubu has tremendous faculities for understanding science." Here, it means you have tremendous abilities for understanding science.

Can I say

'he is a great faculty in ecience'?
Or

' we have great faculties in our school'?

I would reword your first example.

1) He is a great member (an esteemed member) of our faculty of science.

Your second example is correct. I might make one minor change (though both are probably correct).....

2) We have great faculties at our school.

Hope that helps.

Bubu prasant · Answer

That was great . Thank you.

one thing more.
Bubu never was able to pass his science tests let alone have faculty in the subject or be a member of the science-faculty.

Is the use of 'faculty' in the above sentece correct?

MountainHiker · Answer

Bubu never was able to pass his science tests let alone have faculty in the subject or be a member of the science-faculty.

The first "faculty" sounds a bit awkward to me. I can't explain why, or even say with confidence that I am correct. The second "faculty" is fine.

Perhaps....

Because Bubu lacks a faculty for science, he was unable to pass his science test and thus was unable to become a member of the science faculty.

I think that is okay, though I am not positive. I don't often use "faculties" for abilities. Perhaps someone else can jump in and provide their opinions.

Let's hope someone else provides his or her input.

Faculty or faculties?

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