Cambridge A–Z
A glossary of Cambridge terms
Cambridge speaks its own language. Tripos, supervision, bedder and formal hall: the words run the University, and spin-out, Silicon Fen and the Cambridge Phenomenon run the business conversation around it. The official pages explain each term to their own audiences - applicants, academics, tourists - but nobody explains them to the adult newcomer: the professional who moved here for work, the founder scouting the cluster, the partner learning the city second-hand. This glossary does that, in plain English, one term per page, each with its sources.
How to use this glossary
Start with the opening paragraph of any term: it answers the question on its own. "In practice" gives the working detail - dates, numbers, routines - and the final section says why the term matters to someone who arrived in Cambridge as an adult. Each page names its official source, so anything time-sensitive can be rechecked in one click.
University and colleges
- Anglia Ruskin University - Cambridge's second university, with its main Cambridge campus on East Road, which grew from the Cambridge School of Art founded in 1858 and became a university in 1992.
- Bedder - A College housekeeper, short for bedmaker; the Oxford equivalent is called a scout.
- Blue - The sporting honour awarded to Cambridge students who compete against Oxford in a Varsity match in qualifying sports, named after the University's light blue colour.
- Caius - The short name of Gonville and Caius College, pronounced 'Keys', after its second founder, the physician John Caius.
- Cambridge Union - The Cambridge Union Society, the University's debating society, founded in 1815 and the oldest continuously running debating society in the world.
- College - One of 31 self-governing communities that make up the collegiate University alongside its faculties and departments.
- Director of Studies - The College academic responsible for a student's coursework, progress and supervision arrangements in their subject.
- Fellow - A senior member of a Cambridge College, usually an academic, who belongs to its governing body and has dining and other rights in College.
- Formal hall - A served formal dinner in a College hall, with gowns, a dress code and traditional ceremony.
- Gown - Academical dress: undergraduates wear their College gown, graduates the gown of their degree.
- Master - The usual title of the head of a Cambridge College, though several Colleges use other titles, such as Provost, President, Principal, Warden or Mistress.
- Matriculation - The formal admission of a student to membership of the University, early in the first term.
- May Week and May Balls - The end-of-year celebrations after exams in June, built around all-night College balls.
- MCR and JCR - The graduate and undergraduate communities of a Cambridge College and their common rooms: the Middle Combination Room for graduate students and the Junior Combination Room for undergraduates.
- Michaelmas, Lent and Easter terms - The three terms of the Cambridge academical year: Michaelmas in autumn, Lent in winter, Easter in spring.
- Porter and the Porters' Lodge - The staffed front desk of a College, handling security, keys, mail and first help for members and visitors.
- Senate House and graduation - The building where Cambridge degrees are conferred at formal Congregations.
- Supervision - Small-group teaching arranged by the College: one to three students meeting a specialist for about an hour each week.
- Tripos - The examinations and courses for a Cambridge undergraduate degree, split into Parts that students combine across years.
Silicon Fen and business
- Babraham Research Campus - A life-sciences campus south-east of Cambridge, home to the Babraham Institute and a cluster of bioscience companies working alongside it.
- Cambridge Biomedical Campus - The hospital and medical research site on the southern edge of Cambridge, home to Addenbrooke's, the Rosie and Royal Papworth hospitals, research institutes and companies.
- Cambridge Cluster Insights - Cambridge Ahead's public data resource on companies within 20 miles of Cambridge, reporting their number, turnover, employment and growth by sector.
- Cambridge Enterprise - The University's commercialisation arm, turning research into companies, licences and investment.
- Cambridge Phenomenon - The name for the rapid growth of technology and life-science companies around Cambridge since the 1960s.
- Innovation centre - A managed building where early-stage technology companies rent flexible space and share business support; Cambridge's St John's Innovation Centre opened in 1987.
- Knowledge-intensive sectors - The label for research-driven sectors, such as software, life sciences and high-tech manufacturing, tracked apart in cluster data.
- Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor - The government's current name for the area between Oxford and Cambridge that it promotes for investment and new transport links, earlier known as the Oxford–Cambridge Arc.
- Science park - A managed estate where research companies cluster near the University; Cambridge's original dates to 1970.
- Silicon Fen - The working name of the technology cluster in and around Cambridge, built on software, electronics and biotechnology firms.
- Spin-out - A new company formed to commercialise research or intellectual property developed inside the University.
- Wellcome Genome Campus - The genomics research campus at Hinxton, south of Cambridge, home to the Wellcome Sanger Institute and EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute.
Life in the city
- The Backs - The river frontage where several Colleges back onto the Cam, with lawns, gardens and bridges along the water.
- Bumps - College rowing races on the Cam in which boats chase each other in single file and try to catch the crew ahead, held as the Lent Bumps and the May Bumps.
- Choral Evensong - A sung evening service held in Cambridge College chapels such as King's, where services are free and open to visitors.
- College visiting hours - The times when a Cambridge College lets members of the public into its grounds; hours, fees and closures are set by each College.
- The Eagle - A historic pub on Bene't Street in central Cambridge where, in 1953, Francis Crick announced that he and James Watson had discovered the structure of DNA.
- Footlights - The Cambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, a student comedy society founded in 1883 that launched many of Britain's best-known comedians and writers.
- Granta - The old name of the river that flows through Cambridge, still used for the stretch upstream of the city, and the root of the city's own name.
- Grantchester - The village about two miles up the river from Cambridge, reached on foot across Grantchester Meadows or by punt, known for its tea garden and its literary associations.
- Guided busway - A bus rapid transit route where buses run on a dedicated guided track, linking Cambridge with St Ives and Huntingdon; described as the world's longest guided busway.
- King's Parade - The central street that runs past the front of King's College and its chapel, the busiest and most photographed street in Cambridge.
- Market Square - The open square in the centre of Cambridge, also called Market Hill, where an outdoor market has traded from stalls since Saxon times.
- Mathematical Bridge - The wooden footbridge across the Cam at Queens' College, first built in 1749 from straight timbers arranged to form an arch, and the subject of a famous myth about Isaac Newton.
- Midsummer Common - The open common land beside the Cam on the north-east edge of the city centre, where cattle graze in summer and the city holds Midsummer Fair, Strawberry Fair and its Bonfire Night fireworks.
- Mill Road - The long street in east Cambridge lined with independent shops, international grocers, cafés and restaurants, the most diverse high street in the city.
- Nine Lessons and Carols - The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, the Christmas Eve service in King's College Chapel, first held in 1918 and broadcast by the BBC around the world.
- Parker's Piece - A large open common in central Cambridge, used for games and events, where the Cambridge University Football Club laws were first used.
- Punt and punting - A flat-bottomed boat pushed along the River Cam with a long pole, and the leisure trip taken in it.
- Strawberry Fair - A free, volunteer-run music and arts festival held on Midsummer Common in early June, one of the city's biggest community events.
- Town and gown - The traditional name for the two communities of a university city: the townspeople, and the members of the University, once marked out by academic dress.
Cambridge Society is an independent community and is not affiliated with the University of Cambridge or its colleges.