qualification
nounUK /ˌkwɒlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/ · US /ˌkwɑlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
Etymology Borrowed from Middle French qualification in the 1540s, which in turn derives from Medieval Latin quālificātiō. By surface analysis, qual(ify) + -ification.
1
The act or process of qualifying for a position, achievement etc.
- Qualification for this organization is extraordinarily difficult.
2
An ability or attribute that aids someone's chances of qualifying for something; specifically, completed professional training.
- What are your qualifications for this job?
3
UK A certificate, diploma, or degree awarded after successful completion of a course, training, or exam.
4
A clause or condition which qualifies something; a modification, a limitation.
- I accept your offer, but with the following qualification.
- Before a vowel (as in rib, brake) r is usually pronounced as a fricative consonant by all groups of speakers. But the qualification 'usually' is necessary, for the Negroes tend to weaken r after a consonant; and they omit it, as do illiterate white speakers, in throat, throw, through.1937, Oma Stanley, “III. The Consonants”, in The Speech of East Texas (American Speech: Reprints and Monographs; 2), New York: Columbia University Press, →DOI, →ISBN, § 7, page 63:
5
Obsolete A quality or attribute.
- To shew, that these Qualfications, which we all pretend to be asham'd of, are the great support of a flourishing Society has been the subject of the foregoing Poem.1714, Bernard Mandeville, The Fable of the Bees:
- Derived terms
- dequalification, disqualification, misqualification, nonqualification, overqualification, paper qualification syndrome, postqualification, prequalification, qualification problem, requalification, self-qualification, underqualification, unqualification
- Related terms
- qualify, certification, clarification