Preschool

How to spell preschool

9 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce preschool

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does preschool mean?

1. nounA school or nursery for children younger than the usual age for primary education.
2. adjectiveRelating to the years or stage of childhood before primary school begins.

Preschool in a sentence

• noun

  They enrolled their daughter in a local preschool near the office.

• adjective

  The survey focused on preschool children and their early language skills.

• noun

  The preschool charges a monthly fee and provides lunch for the children.

• adjective

  She works as a preschool teacher with a class of three-year-olds.

Where does preschool come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a compound of the prefix pre-, from the Latin prae meaning 'before' or 'in front of', joined to 'school'. The word 'school' itself travelled a long way: it began as the Greek skhole, which originally meant 'leisure' or 'spare time', the very idleness in which thoughtful Greeks held philosophical discussions. From that came the sense of a place where such learned discussion happened, and Latin borrowed it as schola, the source of Old English scol. The combined word 'preschool' is a modern formation, emerging in the early twentieth century as organised early education grew, to name the period and the institutions that come before formal schooling begins. The spelling stays clean because both parts are written in full, so the trap is simply remembering it is a single closed word with the double letter 's' meeting the prefix.

How the word is built

• pre- (before)
• school (from Latin schola, a place of learning)