Plural of coed; female students at a coeducational school or college, or referring to coeducational institutions.
Short for coeducational or coeducation. Originally (late 1800s) used primarily to refer to female students in coeducational schools, with 'coed' being slang shorthand.
Remarkably, 'coeds' was once considered a radical term—when universities first began admitting women alongside men in the late 1800s, they needed a new word, and 'coed' became the shorthand that normalized the concept of shared educational spaces.
Originally 'coed' (1890s) denoted female students admitted to male-only universities. The term marked women's presence as exceptional, defined by contrast to the unmarked male default—reinforcing the assumption that universities were male spaces.
Avoid. Use 'students' or 'co-students' in modern contexts. If discussing historical educational access, 'women students' or 'female students admitted to coeducational institutions' is clearer.
["students","female students","women students","co-students"]
Women's admission to universities was hard-won. Early 'coeds' demonstrated academic capability against institutional and social resistance; their presence fundamentally reshaped higher education.
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