The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Faculty \Fac"ul*ty\, n.; pl. Faculties. [F. facult?, L.
   facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to
   make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.]
   1. Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated;
      capacity for any natural function; especially, an original
      mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes
      of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity
      for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as
      knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or
      gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.
      [1913 Webster]

            But know that in the soul
            Are many lesser faculties that serve
            Reason as chief.                      --Milton.
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            What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason
            ! how infinite in faculty !           --Shak.
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   2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
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            He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any
            topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous
            temperament.                          --Hawthorne.
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   3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]
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            This Duncan
            Hath borne his faculties so meek.     --Shak.
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   4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence,
      to do a particular thing; authority; license;
      dispensation.
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            The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free
            from his promise.                     --Fuller.
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            It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops'
            dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they
            should think fit to alter among the colleges.
                                                  --Evelyn.
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   5. A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is
      granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four
      departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law,
      Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of
      teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in
      which they had studied; at present, the members of a
      profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal
      faculty, etc.
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   6. (Amer. Colleges) The body of person to whom are intrusted
      the government and instruction of a college or university,
      or of one of its departments; the president, professors,
      and tutors in a college.
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   Dean of faculty. See under Dean.

   Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See under Advocate.

   Syn: Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness;
        cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.
        [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

faculty
    n 1: one of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the
         mind [syn: faculty, mental faculty, module]
    2: the body of teachers and administrators at a school; "the
       dean addressed the letter to the entire staff of the
       university" [syn: staff, faculty]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

124 Moby Thesaurus words for "faculty":
   ability, ableness, absolute power, absolutism, adequacy,
   adroitness, appurtenance, aptitude, aptness, authority,
   authorization, bent, birthright, bump, caliber, capability,
   capableness, capacity, claim, cleverness, competence, competency,
   conjugal right, consciousness, constituted authority,
   delegated authority, demand, department, dexterity, discipline,
   dispensation, divine right, dower, dowry, droit, due, efficacy,
   efficiency, endowment, equipment, facility, faculties, fitness,
   flair, forte, function, genius, gift, inalienable right,
   indirect authority, inherent authority, instinct,
   intellectual gifts, intellectuals, interest, jus divinum, knack,
   lawful authority, leaning, legal authority, legitimacy, liberty,
   long suit, makings, members, metier, natural endowment,
   natural gift, natural right, nose, parts, penchant, permission,
   personnel, potential, power, powers, predilection, prerogative,
   prescription, presumptive right, pretense, pretension, privilege,
   proclivity, professorate, professordom, professoriate, professors,
   proficiency, propensity, proper claim, property, property right,
   qualification, quality, regality, right, rightful authority,
   royal prerogative, sanction, school, senses, skill, speciality,
   staff, strong flair, strong point, sufficiency, susceptibility,
   talent, talents, the goods, the say, the say-so, the stuff, title,
   turn, vested authority, vested interest, vested right,
   vicarious authority, what it takes, wits



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FACULTY, canon law. A license; an authority. For example, the ordinary
having the disposal of all seats in the nave of a church, may grant this
power, which, when it is delegated, is called a faculty, to another.
     2. Faculties are of two kinds; first, when the grant is to a man and
his heirs in gross; second, when it is to a person and his heirs, as
appurtenant to a house which he holds in the parish. 1 T. R. 429, 432; 12
Co. R. 106.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

FACULTY, Scotch law. Equivalent to ability or power.  The term faculty is
more properly applied to a power founded on the consent of the party from
whom it springs, and not founded on property. Kames on Eq. 504.