graduation

n. completion of a course of study (in a school, etc.); commencement, ceremony in which diplomas or degrees are awarded; mark showing a degree of measurement.

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. The event itself is also called commencement, convocation or invocation. In the United States and Canada, it is also used to refer to the advancement from a primary or secondary school level. Beginning at the secondary school level in the United States, such ceremonies usually include a procession of the faculty and candidates. The candidates will almost always wear academic dress, and increasingly faculty will do the same. At the college and university level the opposite is true, and the faculty will usually wear academic dress at the formal ceremonies, as will the trustees and degree candidates. Many colleges have traditions associated with the graduation ceremony, the most common likely the throwing of mortarboards in the air.
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n. graduation, mark showing a degree of measurement.

n. graduating, scale

(n.)
The marks on an instrument or vessel to indicate degrees or quantity; a scale.
  

(n.)
The exposure of a liquid in large surfaces to the air, so as to hasten its evaporation.
  

(n.)
The act of graduating, or the state of being graduated; as, graduation of a scale; graduation at a college; graduation in color; graduation by evaporation; the graduation of a bird's tail, etc.