trivium

(noun)

In medieval universities, the trivium comprised the three subjects that were taught first: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.

Related Terms

Examples of trivium in the following topics:

  • Intellectual Life

    • In Europe, young men proceeded to university when they had completed their study of the trivium—the preparatory arts of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic—and the quadrivium—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.