GCSE

British

abbreviation

General Certificate of Secondary Education: a public examination in specified subjects for 16-year-old schoolchildren. It replaced the GCE O-level and CSE

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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 Department for Education said: "It is for exam boards to decide which languages to offer at GCSE," and added that it was introducing a "stepped qualification in languages" within the primary curriculum.

From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026

"If you then drop it at A-level, ultimately students may decide, 'Well, if I can't progress beyond GCSE, I'm not going to take that subject,'" he says.

From BBC • Dec. 15, 2025

And she addressed the claims that scrapping the EBacc could lead to fewer pupils taking history, geography and languages at GCSE, saying the measure "hasn't led to improved outcomes" or "improvement in language study".

From BBC • Nov. 4, 2025

Oxbridge Home Learning offered qualifications, including GCSE, Btec and A-level courses, with online tutoring.

From BBC • Oct. 13, 2025

Data gathered by survey tool Teacher Tapp, commissioned by teaching charity Teach First, suggests 15% of schools in the poorest communities cannot offer computer science GCSE, compared to 4% of the wealthiest schools.

From BBC • Jun. 8, 2025

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023