What is "trinity term"

Trinity \Trin"i*ty\, n. [OE. trinitee, F. trinit['e], L. trinitas, fr. trini three each. See Trinal.]

1. (Christian Theol.) The union of three persons (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost) in one Godhead, so that all the three are one God as to substance, but three persons as to individuality.

2. Any union of three in one; three units treated as one; a triad, as the Hindu trinity, or Trimurti.

3. Any symbol of the Trinity employed in Christian art, especially the triangle.

   Trinity House, an institution in London for promoting commerce and navigation, by licensing pilots, ordering and erecting beacons, and the like.

   Trinity Sunday, the Sunday next after Whitsunday; -- so called from the feast held on that day in honor of the Holy Trinity.

   Trinity term. (Law) See the Note under Term, n., 5.

Trinity term is the third and final term of the academic year at University of Oxford, the University of Dublin, Canterbury Christ Church University, and some independent schools in the United Kingdom. It runs from about mid April to about the end of June and is named after Trinity Sunday, which falls eight weeks after Easter, in May or June.

At the University of Oxford, following the resolution made by Council on 8 May 2002, Trinity Term begins on and includes 20 April or the Wednesday after Easter, whichever is the later, and ends on and includes 6 July. In Trinity Term, as in Michaelmas Term and in Hilary Term, there is a period of eight weeks known as Full Term, beginning on a Sunday, within which lectures and other instruction prescribed by statute or regulation are given. The dates on which each Full Term will begin and end in the next academic year but one are published by the Registrar in the University Gazette during Hilary Term.

At the University of Sydney, it was the second and coldest of the three terms, running from the 24th to the 34th Mondays of the year (late May to early August) in the middle of winter, until Sydney changed over to the two semester system in 1989.

The term is also one of four into which the legal year is divided by the Courts of England and Wales, from 22 May to 12 June, during which the superior courts were formerly open. Trinity term is also used for the sitting of the High Court of Justice of England between 9 June and 31 July also known as Trinity sitting.