textbook
Americannoun
-
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:
Pearson says Colossus I, the name of SpaceXAI boss Elon Musk's first mega AI supercomputer facility is "a textbook case of what it looks like when elected officials make promises about economic mobility."
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
The Miller-Moreno saga is a textbook example of how this promise of patriarchal protection is a myth.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
The sloppy joe at Town Hall Delicatessen in South Orange, N.J., isn’t the textbook version you’re probably imagining.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The seventh song, Yeah, is a textbook example of tension and release in pop music - that strips the idea down to its most elemental form.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
He holds up what looks like a textbook.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
The possibility that gluons carry baryon number would overturn the standard simplified description found in many textbooks.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
The idea became highly influential in evolutionary biology and eventually appeared widely in biology textbooks.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 15, 2026
Kahaan wasn't the sort of teenager consumed only by textbooks.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
They’re dead-set on excising any shagginess that doesn’t fit their hidebound worldview, attacking textbooks and museums that dare to push beyond a straightforward explanation.
From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026
“Time to get back to work. Let’s get our history textbooks opened to page 65, please.”
From "Finding Langston" by Lesa Cline-Ransome
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.
