university of life
1
8.2
- noun
- Informal
:
universidad de la vida
- Her wisdom doesn't come from books, but from the university of life.
Examples
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He credits the university of life for teaching him how to succeed in business.
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Traveling is like a university of life for me.
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After years of traveling, I feel like I've graduated from the university of life.
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Many people believe that the university of life teaches valuable lessons.
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Through my travels and various jobs, I've learned invaluable lessons at the university of life.
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Many people say that working in the community teaches you valuable skills at the university of life.
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She always emphasizes that the university of life has been her best teacher, more than any classroom could be.
Synonyms
266
2.3
The everyday world people live in outside books or theory
253
3.9
Everyday life and work outside study or theory
1
3.4
Study where you do practical tasks with real tools or equipment
1
7.4
Life experience you get by facing hard problems instead of formal education
Learning practical skills and wisdom from life and real problems rather than from school
How Experiential
Surface Forms
Morphology
university + of + life
The phrase maps directly onto the constituents: 'university' (a place of learning) + 'of life' (belonging to or provided by life), so a learner who knows the words can infer it means learning gained from life experience. Although metaphorical, this is a straightforward compositional metaphor common across languages (e.g., 'school of life'), making the meaning predictable for a B1 learner.
Etymology
University of life imagines university as a school and life as the teacher, where people learn from real events instead of in classrooms. That's why it means 'learning from real-life experience' rather than formal education.