lycée

American  

[lee-sey] / liˈseɪ /

noun

plural

lycées

1. a secondary school, especially in France, maintained by the government.

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lycée British  

/ lise, ˈliːseɪ /

noun

1. a secondary school

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Etymology

Origin of lycée

1860–65; < French < Latin lycēum lyceum

Explanation

A lycee is a high school, particularly one where French is spoken. Before you enroll at the Sorbonne, you need to graduate from your lycee! In France, the lycee (or in French, lycée) is the final part of a student's secondary, pre-college education. Generally this means grades 9 through 12, or the equivalent of high school in the U.S. If you attend an American lycee, it is usually a French immersion school, or one that mixes the use of English and French. Lycee derives from the Greek lykeion, an ancient Athenian grove where Aristotle taught.

Example Sentences

Her father is an engineer; her feminist mother marches in demonstrations against the shah; Marji, an only child, attends French lycée.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2021

He landed in Beirut, Lebanon, with a teacher’s letter of introduction to the Collège Arménien, a lycée founded in 1928 to educate Armenian refugees.

From New York Times • Apr. 16, 2021

He was sent away by his parents to a prestigious lycée in Paris, but the relationship continued and the pair married when he was 30.

From The Guardian • Feb. 17, 2017

The choice of track is also not entirely up to the students; the head of their lycée, or high school, has the final say.

From Slate • Feb. 6, 2014

He so perplexed and annoyed his superiors that they were on the eve of expelling him, when a new master came to the lycée from Paris, and all was changed.

From France in the Nineteenth Century by Latimer, Elizabeth