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alumnus

/əˈlʌmnəs/noun

alumnus is spelled A-L-U-M-N-U-S: 7 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “alumni vs alumnus” about 6,600 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, alumnus means “A male pupil or student” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of alumnus is alumni or alumnuses.

How many letters and syllables are in alumnus?

Letters7: A-L-U-M-N-U-S
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 32,393rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How common is alumnus?

Alumnus appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 32,393rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce alumnus?

  • /əˈlʌmnəs/

Alumnus has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-alumnus.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with alumnus

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

alumni vs alumnus6,600 G
alum vs alumnus30 B
alumna vs alumnus20 B

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of alumnus

  • alumni plural
  • alumnuses plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does alumnus mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A male pupil or student.

  2. 2

    A male graduate.

  3. 3

    A student of any gender.

  4. 4

    A graduate of any gender.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Alumnus in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchétudiant, élève (a male pupil or student), diplômé, ancien élève (a male graduate), étudiante (a student)
GermanStudent (a male pupil or student), Absolvent, Ehemaliger (a male graduate), Absolventin (a graduate)
Portuguesealuno (a male pupil or student), diplomado, graduado, egresso (a male graduate)
Spanishalumno (a male pupil or student), exalumno, egresado (a male graduate)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does alumnus come from?

Learned borrowing from Latin alumnus (“foster child, nourished one”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after alumnus