Meaning & use
bootcamp
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Meanings
nouncountable
A short, intense course of training in a skill or in fitness, with long hours and strict demands.
Grammar: Countable: join a bootcamp, two bootcamps; often used before another noun, as in bootcamp training.
Patterns
- a bootcamp for something
- go to a bootcamp
She signed up for a three-month coding bootcamp.
The gym runs a morning fitness bootcamp in the park.
After the bootcamp, he felt ready to apply for developer jobs.
nouncountablemilitary
A military training camp where new recruits learn basic discipline and fitness.
Grammar: Often used with the: he went through bootcamp.
Patterns
- go through bootcamp
Recruits spend their first weeks at bootcamp learning to march.
He joked that university felt like army bootcamp.
The sergeant remembered bootcamp as the hardest part of service.
Word forms
| plural | bootcamps |
|---|
Common combinations
- coding bootcamp
- He left his job to join a coding bootcamp.
- fitness bootcamp
- The fitness bootcamp starts at 6 a.m.
- intensive bootcamp
- It was an intensive bootcamp with no weekends off.
- attend a bootcamp
- She attended a data science bootcamp last summer.
- complete a bootcamp
- Only half the group completed the bootcamp.
Synonyms and how they differ
- crash course
- A crash course is any fast lesson, whereas bootcamp suggests a longer, tougher, full-time program.
- training camp
- Training camp is common in sport and is less strict in tone than bootcamp.
- workshop
- A workshop is usually shorter and more relaxed than a bootcamp.
Word family
- boot camp noun
- the two-word spelling
- camp noun
- a place for outdoor or group activities
- bootcamper noun
- informal: someone attending a bootcamp
Commonly confused: bootcamp or summer camp?
bootcamp vs summer camp
A summer camp is for relaxed activities, usually for children, while a bootcamp is demanding training.
Practice
Maya wants a job in web development and joins an eight-week, full-time program of intensive training. What is the program?
Choose one answer.
A bootcamp is short, intense, skills-focused training. A seminar or lecture is usually shorter and less demanding.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bootcamp”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.