prep school

noun

1. preparatory school.

prep school

noun

1. informal,  See preparatory school

Word History and Origins

Origin of prep school¹

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Mr. Schlossberg’s résumé bears many of the hallmarks of elite status: tony New York prep school, Yale undergraduate degree, joint business and law degree from Harvard.

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Stokes arrived last season from a Northern California prep school and helped the Knights reach the Southern Section Open Division championship game and the Southern California Regional final.

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When he was a child, his aunt and uncle accidentally enrolled him in a Baptist boarding school in Kentucky, thinking it was a prestigious prep school.

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Computer science isn’t the safe bet it used to be, so a lot of students are majoring in business, says Allison Slater Tate, director of college counseling at a private prep school in Florida.

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The prep school, which is part of the Methodist Independent Schools Trust, educates children aged two to 11.

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Related Words

• high school 
• junior high school 
• middle school 
• preparatory school 
• senior high school