Institution System People Educational Extra Examples Noun ˌɪnstɪˈtjuːʃn

• the deal is backed by one of the country's largest financial institutions.
• he has worked as a visiting lecturer for various educational institutions.
• the system is targeted mainly at academic and research institutions.
• the smithsonian institution

institution

1. a large important organization that has a particular purpose, for example a university or bank
• The deal is backed by one of the country's largest financial institutions.
• He has worked as a visiting lecturer for various educational institutions.
• The system is targeted mainly at academic and research institutions.
• the Smithsonian Institution
• The region boasts several institutions of higher education.

Extra Examples

• The College is one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the country.
• We need to create institutions that benefit our community.
• a course at an institution of higher education
• cultural institutions such as the Danish Institute
• examination procedures within educational institutions
• young people who attend higher-education institutions
2. a building where people with special needs are taken care of, for example because they are old or mentally ill
• They had him committed to a mental institution.
• We want this to be like a home, not an institution.

Extra Examples

• patients in mental institutions
• an institution for mentally ill offenders
• The state built institutions for those who were considered insane.
• Many people with dementia would rather remain at home than be placed in an institution.
• He was released from the state institution where he had been confined for four years.
3. a custom or system that has existed for a long time among a particular group of people
• He claimed this threatened ‘the sacred institution of marriage’.
• Fish and chips became a national institution in Britain.

Extra Examples

• Football is a national institution in this country.
• American laws once protected the institution of slavery.
• These changes threaten some of our most cherished institutions.
• These values are embedded in mainstream social institutions.
• cultural institutions such as religious and legal codes
• Parliament remains the central institution of the constitution of the United Kingdom.
• They argue for the reform of existing political institutions.
• the central institutions of the nation's constitution
• They are studying ways to reform government institutions.
4. the act of starting or introducing something such as a system or a law
• the institution of new safety procedures
5. a person who is well known because they have been in a particular place or job for a long time
• You must know him—he's an institution around here!

Word Origin

• late Middle English (in senses (3) and (4)): via Old French from Latin institutio(n-), from the verb instituere, from in- ‘in, towards’ + statuere ‘set up’. Sense (1) dates from the early 18th cent.