tuition

From Old French [Term?], from Latin tuitiō (“guard, protection, defense”), from tuēri (“to watch, guard, see, observe”). Compare intuition, tutor.

• (General American) enPR: to͞oĭ'shən, IPA^(key): /tuˈɪʃən/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tyo͞oĭ'shən, IPA^(key): /tjuːˈɪʃən/

  • Audio (Southern England)

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• (Indian English, Malaysia, Singapore) enPR: tyo͞o'shən, IPA^(key): /ˈtjuːʃən/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɪʃən

tuition (countable and uncountable, plural tuitions)

1. (Canada, US) A sum of money paid for instruction (such as in a high school, boarding school, university, or college).

   These rosemaling workshops are no place for anyone who wants to pester me or the students with the "white privilege" card, inter alia. Therefore, I reserve the right to refund the tuition of such men and women, kick them out the door, and bar them from at least two of my future events.

   Synonym: (UK) tuition fees

2. The training or instruction provided by a teacher or tutor.
   • 2013 July 19, Peter Wilby, “Finland spreads word on schools”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 30:

     Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16. […] There are no inspectors, no exams until the age of 18, no school league tables, no private tuition industry, no school uniforms. […]

   1. (India, Malaysia, Singapore) Paid private classes taken outside of formal education; tutoring. (also used attributively)

      tuition classes

      • 2021 August 18, Qiu Guanhua, “Forum: Heavy reliance on tuition to boost performance is not healthy”, in The Straits Times‎, Singapore, archived from the original on 28 December 2022:

        Tuition in the past was like taking medicine and you sent children for it only if they were doing poorly in a subject.

3. (archaic) Care, guardianship.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     BENEDICK. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and so I commit you—
     CLAUDIO. To the tuition of God: from my house, if I had it,—
     DON PEDRO. The sixth of July: your loving friend, Benedick.
     BENEDICK. Nay, mock not, mock not.

• “tuition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “tuition”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.