At a university or college, liberal arts refers to subjects such as history or literature rather than science, law, medicine, or business.
Houghton College has a long-standing focus on the liberal arts.
liberal arts in British English
plural noun
the fine arts, humanities, sociology, languages, and literature
Often shortened to: arts
liberal arts in American English
1. Obsolete
the subjects in the trivium, quadrivium
2.
the subjects of an academic college course, including literature, philosophy, languages, history, and, usually, survey courses of the sciences, as distinguished from professional or technical subjects
sometimes referred to as arts, as in Bachelor of Arts
Word origin
transl. of L artes liberales, lit., arts befitting a freeman: so named in contrast to artes serviles, lower (lit., servile) arts, and because open to study only by freemen (L liberi); in later use understood as “arts becoming a gentleman”
Examples of 'liberal arts' in a sentence
liberal arts
She hadn't worked so hard since she had slogged her way through genetics on her way to a liberal arts degree.