SCHOOL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does school mean? 

• SCHOOL (noun)
  The noun SCHOOL has 7 senses:

1. an educational institution

2. a building where young people receive education

3. the process of being formally educated at a school

4. a body of creative artists or writers or thinkers linked by a similar style or by similar teachers

5. the period of instruction in a school; the time period when school is in session

6. an educational institution's faculty and students

7. a large group of fish

  Familiarity information: SCHOOL used as a noun is common.

• SCHOOL (verb)
  The verb SCHOOL has 3 senses:

1. educate in or as if in a school

2. teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

3. swim in or form a large group of fish

  Familiarity information: SCHOOL used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCHOOL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An educational institution

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the school was founded in 1900

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

educational institution (an institution dedicated to education)

Meronyms (members of "school"):

faculty; staff (the body of teachers and administrators at a school)

school teacher; schoolteacher (a teacher in a school below the college level)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "school"):

secretarial school (a school where secretarial skills (typing and shorthand and filing etc) are taught)

language school (a school for teaching foreign languages)

tech; technical school (a school teaching mechanical and industrial arts and the applied sciences)

training school (a school providing practical vocational and technical training)

veterinary school (a school teaching veterinary medicine)

conservatory (the faculty and students of a school specializing in one of the fine arts)

alma mater (your alma mater is a school you graduated from)

public school (a tuition free school in the United States supported by taxes and controlled by a school board)

private school (a school established and controlled privately and supported by endowment and tuition)

dance school (a school where students are taught to dance)

day school (a school giving instruction during the daytime)

night school (a school that holds classes in the evenings for students who cannot attend during the day)

Sabbath school; Sunday school (school meeting on Sundays for religious instruction)

elementary school; grade school; grammar school; primary school (a school for young children; usually the first 6 or 8 grades)

Gymnasium; lycee; lyceum; middle school; secondary school (a school for students intermediate between elementary school and college; usually grades 9 to 12)

riding school (a school where horsemanship is taught and practiced)

religious school (a school run by a religious body)

nursing school; school of nursing (a school for training nurses)

grad school; graduate school (a school in a university offering study leading to degrees beyond the bachelor's degree)

flying school (a school for teaching students to fly airplanes)

finishing school (a private school for girls that emphasizes training in cultural and social activities)

driving school (a school where people are taught to drive automobiles)

direct-grant school (formerly a school that charged tuition fees and also received government grants in return for admitting certain non-paying students who were nominated by the local authorities)

dancing school (a school in which students learn to dance)

crammer (a special school where students are crammed)

correspondence school (a school that teaches nonresident students by mail)

academy (a school for special training)

Derivation:

scholastic (of or relating to schools)

school (educate in or as if in a school)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A building where young people receive education

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

school; schoolhouse

Context example:

he walked to school every morning

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)

Meronyms (parts of "school"):

classroom; schoolroom (a room in a school where lessons take place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "school"):

day school (a school building without boarding facilities)

conservatoire; conservatory (a schoolhouse with special facilities for fine arts)

Holonyms ("school" is a part of...):

school system (establishment including the plant and equipment for providing education from kindergarten through high school)

Derivation:

school (educate in or as if in a school)

scholastic (of or relating to schools)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The process of being formally educated at a school

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

school; schooling

Context example:

what will you do when you finish school?

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

education (the gradual process of acquiring knowledge)

Derivation:

scholastic (of or relating to schools)

school (educate in or as if in a school)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A body of creative artists or writers or thinkers linked by a similar style or by similar teachers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the Venetian school of painting

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

body (a group of persons associated by some common tie or occupation and regarded as an entity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "school"):

lake poets (English poets at the beginning of the 19th century who lived in the Lake District and were inspired by it)

secession; sezession (an Austrian school of art and architecture parallel to the French art nouveau in the 1890s)

art nouveau (a French school of art and architecture popular in the 1890s; characterized by stylized natural forms and sinuous outlines of such objects as leaves and vines and flowers)

pointillism (a school of painters who used a technique of painting with tiny dots of pure colors that would blend in the viewer's eye; developed by Georges Seurat and his followers late in 19th century France)

historical school (a school of 19th century German economists and legal philosophers who tried to explain modern economic systems in evolutionary or historical terms)

deconstructivism (a school of architecture based on the philosophical theory of deconstruction)

Ashcan School; Eight (a group of United States painters founded in 1907 and noted for their realistic depictions of sordid aspects of city life)

Sense 5

Meaning:

The period of instruction in a school; the time period when school is in session

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

school; school day; schooltime

Context example:

when the school day was done we would walk home together

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

period; period of time; time period (an amount of time)

Meronyms (parts of "school"):

study hall (a period of time during the school day that is set aside for study)

Derivation:

scholastic (of or relating to schools)

school (educate in or as if in a school)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An educational institution's faculty and students

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the whole school turned out for the game

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

educational institution (an institution dedicated to education)

Derivation:

scholastic (of or relating to schools)

school (educate in or as if in a school)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A large group of fish

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

school; shoal

Context example:

a school of small glittering fish swam by

Hypernyms ("school" is a kind of...):

animal group (a group of animals)

Meronyms (members of "school"):

fish (any of various mostly cold-blooded aquatic vertebrates usually having scales and breathing through gills)

Derivation:

school (swim in or form a large group of fish)

• SCHOOL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they school    ... he / she / it schools   
Past simple: schooled   
Past participle: schooled   
-ing form: schooling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Educate in or as if in a school

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Context example:

The children are schooled at great cost to their parents in private institutions

Hypernyms (to "school" is one way to...):

educate (give an education to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "school"):

home-school (educate (one's children) at home instead of sending (them) to a school)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

school (a building where young people receive education)

school (the process of being formally educated at a school)

school (an educational institution)

school (an educational institution's faculty and students)

school (the period of instruction in a school; the time period when school is in session)

schooling (the act of teaching at school)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgment

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

civilise; civilize; cultivate; educate; school; train

Context example:

She is well schooled in poetry

Hypernyms (to "school" is one way to...):

down; fine-tune; polish; refine (improve or perfect by pruning or polishing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "school"):

sophisticate (make less natural or innocent)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Swim in or form a large group of fish

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

A cluster of schooling fish was attracted to the bait

Hypernyms (to "school" is one way to...):

swim (travel through water)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

school (a large group of fish)

 Context examples 

I am not your dear; I cannot lie down: send me to school soon, Mrs. Reed, for I hate to live here.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Watson there would tell you that I was a nervous, sensitive boy at school.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"By going to school, I fancy, and by studying," she answered.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Those long tangles "disrupt the ability of neurons to communicate with one another," the school points out, adding that tau is "normally a stabilizing structure inside of neurons."

(Researchers May Have Found Way to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Structure at home and at school is important.

(Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, NIH: National Institute of Mental Health)

It may lead them to avoid school.

(Bullying, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

I do not exactly know, for Henrietta and I were at school at the time; but I believe about a year before he married Mary.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Very fine schools they are, too, Papa says.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Schools may also need to increase safe-guarding given the risks of victimisation.

(Genetic variants for autism linked to higher rates of self-harm and childhood maltreatment, University of Cambridge)

These schools are of several kinds, suited to different qualities, and both sexes.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)