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.
Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said the campus had tolerated an “appalling hostile educational environment” for Jewish and Israeli students.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
It also spawned a number of events centred around the Brits, with community-focused initiatives, educational engagement, networking events and other programmes held in Manchester in the weeks leading up to the ceremony.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
Still, it was the strongest students who benefited the most: “This is a common pattern in educational technology: new tools frequently widen achievement gaps rather than close them,” Google wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
Maintaining their joy, then, is seen as both an educational priority and an act of resistance.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
I had by that time lived with dogs, run with dogs, camped with dogs, for literally thousands and thousands of joyous and not a little educational miles.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
Definitions 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.
