kindergarten
noun
Simple meaning
An educational institution for young children, usually between ages 4 and 6.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
kindergahrtuhnSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈkɪndɚɡɑɹtən
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.
noun
CanadaUSAustraliaIndia
An educational institution for young children, usually between ages 4 and 6; nursery school.
philippines
The two levels between nursery and prep; the second and third years of preschool.
CanadaUSAustraliaIndia
The elementary school grade before first grade.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- General and technical use
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (Canada, US, Australia, India) An educational institution for young children, usually between ages 4 and 6; nursery school.
Used this way, kindergarten is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in education or classroom contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Education/classroom
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use kindergarten
- “My child is very excited to start kindergarten next September.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- preschoolnoun
- elementaryadjective
- classroomnoun
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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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.