kindergarten

[kin-der-gahr-tn, -dn]

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noun

a school or class for young children between the ages of four and six years.

Origin of kindergarten

1850–55; < German: literally, children's garden, equivalent to Kinder children (see kind²) + Garten garden

Related formspre·kin·der·gar·ten, noun, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for kindergarten

kindergarten, babysitter, playgroup

Examples from the Web for kindergarten

Contemporary Examples of kindergarten

Now, some of the kindergarten children were standing straight as soldiers in a line at the door of their first-floor classroom.
Freedom From Fear for Dreamer Kids
Mike Barnicle
November 24, 2014
Many cases were kindergarten age, and EV-68 accounted for more than 80 percent of cases.
Midwest's 'Mystery Virus' Is Scary but Not Deadly
Kent Sepkowitz
September 8, 2014
He was able to go to the beach, to the park, and even to his kindergarten graduation.
Canadian Parents Risk Jail to Give Sick Kid Marijuana
Tim Mak
July 22, 2014
From kindergarten through their senior years, kids spend much of their waking life in school.
The Government is Still Failing Kids on School Lunches
Russell Saunders
May 25, 2014
There is a set of booster vaccines at about kindergarten age, with a little bit of variation from practice to practice.
Jenny McCarthy Says She’s Never Been Anti-Vaccine. Yeah, Right.
Russell Saunders
April 16, 2014

Historical Examples of kindergarten

It was no kindergarten way of learning to drive four-in-hand.
A Woman Tenderfoot
Grace Gallatin Seton-Thompson
My papa is a doctor, and my mamma teaches a Kindergarten school.
Harper's Young People, July 20, 1880
Various
This same Morning-glory is the subject of one of the kindergarten songs.
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael
Seela's joy is to be considered old and allowed to go to the kindergarten.
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael
One day in deep depression of spirits the Coney arrived at the kindergarten.
Lotus Buds
Amy Carmichael

British Dictionary definitions for kindergarten

kindergarten

noun

a class or small school for young children, usually between the ages of four and six to prepare them for primary educationOften shortened to (in Australia and New Zealand): kinder, kindy, kindie

Derived Formskindergartener, noun

Word Origin for kindergarten

C19: from German, literally: children's garden

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

Word Origin and History for kindergarten

1852, from German, literally "children's garden," from Kinder "children" (plural of Kind "child;" see kin (n.)) + Garten "garden" (see yard (n.1)). Coined 1840 by German educator Friedrich Fröbel (1782-1852) in reference to his method of developing intelligence in young children.

Kindergarten means a garden of children, and Froebel, the inventor of it, or rather, as he would prefer to express it, the discoverer of the method of Nature, meant to symbolize by the name the spirit and plan of treatment. How does the gardener treat his plants? He studies their individual natures, and puts them into such circumstances of soil and atmosphere as enable them to grow, flower, and bring forth fruit,-- also to renew their manifestation year after year. [Mann, Horace, and Elizabeth P. Peabody, "Moral Culture of Infancy and Kindergarten Guide," Boston, 1863]

The first one in England was established 1850 by Johannes Ronge, German Catholic priest; in America, 1868, by Elizabeth Peabody of Boston, Mass. Taken into English untranslated, whereas other nations that borrowed the institution nativized the name (cf. Danish börnehave, Modern Hebrew gan yeladim, literally "garden of children"). Sometimes partially anglicized as kindergarden (attested by 1879).