You will probably be misunderstood by more people than you can imagine. That phrasal verb, to an average American does not mean “graduation,” rather it means “to fall asleep or faint or become unconscious because you have taken too much of alcohol.” E.g. Vanessa passed out during the drinking spree.
In American English, the most appropriate expression for someone who is leaving school with degrees or honours and who is celebrating that academic achievement is “Graduation.” Graduation, in concrete terms, is the degree ceremony wherein diplomas or degrees are awarded to students who have come out victorious in their formal educational adventure in a higher institution of learning.
British English recognizes the phrasal verb “pass out” as a ceremony that marks the completion of studies in a University. In other words, “pass out” means “Graduate” in England. E.g I will surely pass out with the next set.
Military schools across the globe often use the expression “Passing Out Parade” to mark the end of military training. It is their form of graduation for conscripts or willing students who successfully finished the basic military training.
You can use both terms for someone who is leaving high school/secondary school and college or University.
A graduand is someone (a student) who is about to graduate from the University. A graduate is someone who has completed his/her studies in a university/college or high school/secondary school.
There are no such words as “convocate” and “convocant.” Avoid using them. You only have “convoke” and “convocator” or “convoker.”
Don’t ever say:
I will convoke/convocate next year
I am the convocant of the day
I am convoking today.
“Convoke” means “to call a formal meeting of people, or to call together.”
It is a transitive verb, it thus cannot be used as a non-transitive verb. It must always receive an object whenever it is used. E.g 5000 students were convoked in the main hall. Note that this does not necessarily mean that the students are graduating. They could have been convoked by the school authorities for many reasons. We can convoke a group of experts to tackle a pressing issue.
Is “Convocation” exactly the same as “Graduation”?
Trust me, it will give you a hell of time if you go about rummaging everywhere to find that place where the words “convocation” and “graduation” mean exactly the same. I have turned every dictionary available inside out to find where the words share exact same meaning.
I was on the verge of giving up when I found an old Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary that eventually gave me this meaning of “convocation “:an assembly of the members of a college or university to observe a particular ceremony (as the opening of the academic year or the announcing of prizes, awards, and honors).”
So eventually, “convocation” also means “Graduation.” But why is it so hard to find this? “Convocation” has several meanings but hardly would you find British English defining it as “a ceremony that marks the completion of studies.”
A typical British meaning of this word is “(in the Church of England) a representative assembly of clergy of the province of Canterbury or York.” It also means “A legislative or deliberative assembly of a university.” You may want to argue here that this is the meaning I have been searching for. No, it is not exactly the same because a university could convoke a meeting of its academic members for several reasons and the definition does not say “for award or conferring of honours purposes.”
Oxford dictionary also sees it as “Graduation” but does not fail to point out that the word “convocation” can only, most of the times, be used in this sense by Northern Americans: “A formal ceremony for the conferment of university awards.”
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