preparatory school

See synonyms for preparatory school on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a private or parochial secondary school, especially one boarding its students and providing a college-preparatory education.

  2. British. a private elementary school, especially one preparing its students for public school.

Origin of preparatory school

1
First recorded in 1815–25

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use preparatory school in a sentence

  • Before night the study looked as homelike as the old room had at the preparatory school.

    Ruth Fielding At College | Alice B. Emerson
  • A strict, disciplinary master required to teach English at a preparatory school for the Army.

  • It put a singing in my heart to find myself at last a student in a regular preparatory school, with my face set toward college.

    Tramping on Life | Harry Kemp

British Dictionary definitions for preparatory school

preparatory school

noun
  1. (in Britain) a private school, usually single-sex and for children between the ages of 6 and 13, generally preparing pupils for public school

  2. (in the US) a private secondary school preparing pupils for college

  • Often shortened to: prep school

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012