elementary
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
About the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ehluhmehntreeSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɛləˈmɛntɹi
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
sciences
Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
Of or pertaining to or characteristic of elementary school or elementary education
Very simple.
(number theory, of an argument or proof, mostly historical outside the phrase "Elementary number theory") Making no use of complex analysis.
noun
countable and uncountableinformal
A children's school, typically older than toddlers and younger than adolescents. In the U.S., elementary schools cover grades 1 through 5, and the ages of the children are usually 6-11 years. At a minimum, elementary schools will teach basic reading, writing, arithmetic, and history.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
Used this way, elementary is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use elementary
- “The elementary grades.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Related to an abstract part of something.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Education in elementary subjects (reading and writing and arithmetic) provided to young students at a grade school.
Geometry based on Euclid's axioms.
A particle that is less complex than an atom.
A school for young children.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.