elementary school
Americannoun
noun
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a former name for primary school
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Also called (in the US): grade school. grammar school. a state school in which instruction is given for the first six to eight years of a child's education
Etymology
Origin of elementary school
First recorded in 1835–45
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.
The Iran World Cup team arrived in Tijuana wearing lapel pins on their jackets acknowledging victims of a Feb. 28 missile strike on an elementary school.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026
The National Transportation Safety Board opened an ongoing investigation into Waymo after a robotaxi struck a child in Santa Monica, Calif., near an elementary school.
From The Wall Street Journal • May 30, 2026
There is one more sibling but it’s a boy in elementary school.
From Los Angeles Times • May 29, 2026
In that bitter January darkness of a Manchester elementary school parking lot, several dozen voters clustered in line beside me to get into the gym just as the polls opened.
From Slate • May 26, 2026
Not that many girls carry purses in junior high, but I got my period back in elementary school and got caught one day without any “supplies.”
From "A Good Kind of Trouble" by Lisa Moore Ramée
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.
