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.
      [1913 Webster]

            What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason
            ! how infinite in faculty !           --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
      [1913 Webster]

            He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any
            topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous
            temperament.                          --Hawthorne.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]
      [1913 Webster]

            This Duncan
            Hath borne his faculties so meek.     --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence,
      to do a particular thing; authority; license;
      dispensation.
      [1913 Webster]

            The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free
            from his promise.                     --Fuller.
      [1913 Webster]

            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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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.
      [1913 Webster]

   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]

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