public school

American  

noun

• public schools
  plural

1. (in the U.S.) a school that is maintained at public expense for the education of the children of a community or district and that constitutes a part of a system of free public education commonly including primary and secondary schools.

2. (in England) any of a number of endowed secondary boarding schools that prepare students chiefly for the universities or for public service.

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public school British  

noun

1. (in England and Wales) a private independent fee-paying secondary school

2. (in the US) any school that is part of a free local educational system

3. in certin Canadian provinces, a public elementray school as distinguished from a separate school

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• public-school
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• public schools
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of public school

First recorded in 1570–80

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

public school

Arizona State University is a public school with several primary campuses in the Phoenix area, coupled with a massive component that operates online.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

“A lot of us felt that we’re a public school — if a student comes to Michigan, they want to do a computer-science degree, we should be able to teach them,” Prakash explained.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 19, 2026

Let’s go back in time to the day when parents sent all their children to the same neighborhood public school, one brother after another, one sister after another.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

Jones, director of the Kansas City Health Department in Missouri, read reports showing that not enough public school students were up-to-date with their vaccinations in time for back to school.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2026

In my graduating class from public school there were only eight people, and in Cordelia’s there were four.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

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