adjective
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providing knowledge; instructive or informative
an educational toy
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of or relating to education
Other Word Forms
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countereducationalnoun
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antieducationaladjective
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noneducationaladjective
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posteducationaladjective
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preeducationaladjective
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pseudoeducationaladjective
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quasi-educationaladjective
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antieducationallyadverb
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countereducationallyadverb
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educationallyadverb
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noneducationallyadverb
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preeducationallyadverb
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pseudoeducationallyadverb
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quasi-educationallyadverb
Etymology
Origin of educational
Explanation
If something is educational, it teaches you some new information or gives you new knowledge. Listening to an organic farmer describe the process of beekeeping can be very educational. The adjective educational describes something that imparts new skills or knowledge. Reading a recipe is educational, if it teaches you how to make a perfect buttercream frosting for your cake, and a French class is also educational, as long as you learn something new from it. The word comes from the noun education, or "the process of teaching or learning," which actually meant "childrearing" in the 1500s, and was used interchangeably to mean "the training of animals."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In her letter, Bagula explained that when families are separated, displaced, detained or removed from their communities, schools are often left to respond to the resulting trauma and educational disruption.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 10, 2026
NatureScot - which turned down his application for an educational licence to keep the animal - said it was continuing talks to try to find a "pragmatic solution".
From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2026
In 2025 we created an educational platform to explain investment fundamentals at an accessible level.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026
That study found that traditional Google search results were likelier to return popular websites or those associated with government or educational institutions, while AI searches tended to return content owned by Google and niche websites.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2026
“Why don’t you wait for Dr. Martin in the educational room?”
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
