school
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An educational institution's faculty and students.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
skoolIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈskul
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
British
An educational institution's faculty and students
british
An educational institution providing primary and secondary education, prior to tertiary education (college or university).
The time during which classes are attended or in session in an educational institution.
Within a larger educational institution, an organizational unit, such as a department or institute, which is dedicated to a specific subject area.
indiacanadaus
An institution dedicated to teaching and learning; an educational institution.
“The school was founded in 1900.”
An art movement, a community of artists.
verb
transitive
To educate, teach, or train (often, but not necessarily, in a school).
“The children are schooled at great cost to their parents in private institutions.”
transitive
To defeat emphatically, to teach an opponent a harsh lesson.
transitive
To control, or compose, one's expression.
intransitiveof fish
To form into, or travel in, a school.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A1 · Beginner (estimated)
- Frequency
- Very Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A large group of fish
Used this way, school is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“A school of small glittering fish swam by.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Usage note
It most often appears in the pattern “school of …”, which is worth copying when you use it.
Natural pattern: school of …
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
How It’s Used
The word’s distinct uses, one example each.
Educational / timenoun
“The school was founded in 1900.”
Educateverb
“The children are schooled at great cost to their parents in private institutions.”
More ways to use school
- “The school was founded in 1900.”noun
- “The school was built in 1932.”noun
- “What will you do when you finish school?”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The act of teaching at school.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school.
A newspaper written and published by students in a school.
A child's sudden fear of attending school.
The educator who has executive authority for a school.
A ship used to train students as sailors.
The superintendent of a school system.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
A girl attending school.
A boy attending school.
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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.