Meaning & use
extracurricular
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Meanings
adjectivebefore a noun
Describing an activity that students do outside regular lessons, such as sports, clubs, or music groups.
Grammar: Mostly used before a noun: extracurricular activities, an extracurricular club.
Patterns
- extracurricular activity
- extracurricular program
- extracurricular interests
She joined three extracurricular clubs in her first year.
Extracurricular activities are held after the last class.
The school has a strong extracurricular program in drama.
adjectivebefore a nounhumorous
Outside the usual duties of a job or role, often with a joking or secret tone.
Grammar: A humorous use for things beyond official duties: extracurricular romance.
Patterns
- extracurricular activities
The manager discovered some extracurricular activities among the staff.
He did extracurricular research on weekends.
Her extracurricular hobbies kept her busy outside work.
Common combinations
- extracurricular activities
- Colleges look at extracurricular activities as well as grades.
- extracurricular clubs
- Chess and debate are popular extracurricular clubs.
- extracurricular program
- The extracurricular program includes robotics and art.
- extracurricular interests
- His extracurricular interests included coding and rowing.
- after-school extracurricular
- She had an after-school extracurricular every day.
Synonyms and how they differ
- out-of-class
- Out-of-class simply describes where something happens, while extracurricular names a recognized kind of school activity.
- after-school
- After-school refers to the time of day only, so it is narrower than extracurricular.
- voluntary
- Voluntary means done by choice and does not say anything about school.
- co-curricular
- Co-curricular activities are linked to the official course of study, while extracurricular ones are separate from it.
Opposites
Word family
- curriculum noun
- the set of subjects taught
- curricular adjective
- relating to a curriculum
- extracurriculars noun
- informal plural for such activities
- cocurricular adjective
- linked to the course of study
Commonly confused: extracurricular or extra-curricular?
extracurricular vs extra-curricular
This hyphenated spelling is common in British English, but the one-word form is standard in American English.
Practice
Which of these is an extracurricular activity?
Choose one answer.
A club is optional and outside regular lessons. The other choices are part of the normal curriculum.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “extracurricular”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.