textbook
Americannoun
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textbooks
plural
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of textbook
Explanation
A textbook is an informational book that you use specifically for a class at school. Your biology textbook might be so heavy that you dread lugging it to class. Textbooks are manuals written for instruction in a subject, rather than books you might read for fun. Today many students read textbooks in electronic form, rather than as bound hardcovers. Starting around the 19th century (with easy access to printing and standardized education in many parts of the world), textbooks became a common educational tool. Earlier, a textbook was a name for "a book with wide spaces between the lines."
Vocabulary lists containing textbook
Reading: Informational - Middle School
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Reading: Informational - Introductory
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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.
See Examples For:
"By revisiting a long-standing textbook explanation with modern tools, our work aims to improve chemistry education and strengthen the conceptual foundations that support chemical innovation."
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
After initial training, the model is like a math student who has read every math textbook ever written but has never been taught to converse about math or answer questions in a natural way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
Apple’s CEO succession plan is a textbook case of standard corporate protocol, according to organizational experts.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
In the ashes there is a charred page from an English language textbook: "My name is William, I'm from the UK. My grandmother lives in Nottingham. It's a beautiful city."
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
He looked up from his notebook and the open algebra textbook before him.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
The researchers' 2024 research concluded that textbooks had been describing this effect incorrectly for almost 100 years.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 14, 2026
Viktoria Haidai surveys the mangled remains of the printing press, which should have been busy churning out textbooks ready for the new school year.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
Eight million books were destroyed in the blaze that followed, including 600,000 school textbooks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Some say customers aren’t exactly paying for innovation, but rather for decades of familiarity on the educator side — along with textbooks that build the calculators into their curricula.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
“I see your textbooks have had a rough day.”
From "Made You Up" by Francesca Zappia
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
