textbook
Americannoun
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.
Microsoft is the textbook example of how to leverage parallel bets.
From MarketWatch • Jun. 22, 2026
The narrative conjures meaning from the Los Angeles cityscape by fusing a hodgepodge of textbook theories about the sprawling metropolis onto the gritty reality of daily life.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 22, 2026
After two speeches from textbook campaign types, including Susannah Carr from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and former New York 12 candidate Jami Floyd, Schlossberg emerged onto the stage, flanked inexplicably by two bagpipers.
From Slate • Jun. 18, 2026
The "covered-up" image of a nude artefact has been withdrawn from an Indian school textbook after it sparked a massive backlash from historians and educationists.
From BBC • Jun. 16, 2026
He’s slumped in his chair, and it looks like he’s talking to the textbook.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
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.
