Meaning & use
a nursery
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Meanings
nouncountable
a place where babies and young children are looked after during the day, often while their parents are at work
Grammar: Countable and usually used with a possessive or 'the': my son's nursery, the nursery down the road.
Patterns
- take a child to nursery
- a child at nursery
- work at a nursery
Our daughter started nursery when she was two.
He picks the children up from nursery at five o'clock.
The nursery has room for twenty toddlers.
nouncountable
a place where plants are grown and sold, or a part of a garden where young plants are raised
Grammar: Countable; often 'a plant nursery' when the meaning might be unclear.
Patterns
- buy something from a nursery
- a plant nursery
- grow something in a nursery
We bought two apple trees from a local nursery.
The nursery sells seedlings in spring.
nouncountable
a room in a house set up for a baby or young child to sleep and play in
Grammar: Countable; in this sense it usually follows 'the' or a possessive: the nursery, her nursery.
Patterns
- decorate a nursery
- a nursery for a baby
- the nursery upstairs
They painted the nursery pale yellow.
The nursery is next to the main bedroom.
Word forms
| plural | nurseries |
|---|
Common combinations
- a nursery school
- She teaches at a nursery school in the next town.
- nursery rhyme
- The children know every nursery rhyme by heart.
- nursery nurse
- A nursery nurse looks after the youngest children.
- at nursery
- Is your little boy at nursery yet?
- a plant nursery
- The plant nursery opens early on Saturdays.
Synonyms and how they differ
- day care
- Used mostly in American English for the childcare sense; it sounds more official and less British than 'nursery'.
- preschool
- Refers to education for children aged about three to five, while 'nursery' can also mean simple care for babies.
- greenhouse
- A glass building for growing plants, not a place that sells them, so it fits only some plant contexts.
Word family
- nurse noun
- A person trained to care for sick people, or someone who looks after young children.
- nursing noun
- The work or profession of caring for sick people.
- nurseryman noun
- A man who grows and sells plants for a living.
- nurture verb
- To care for and help something grow, used of children, plants or ideas.
Commonly confused: a nursery or nursing home? a nursery or creche?
a nursery vs nursing home
A place where old or ill people live and are cared for, not a place for young children.
a nursery vs creche
A British word for a place where babies are cared for for a short time, for example while parents shop or study; it is less permanent than a nursery.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'nursery' correctly for a place where plants are grown and sold?
Choose one answer.
'A nursery' can be a place that grows and sells plants, so buying roses there fits. Option 0 confuses the plant sense with the childcare sense, and option 2 refers to a room in a house.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “a nursery”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.