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Meaning & use

school

noun·Everyday

Last updated

UK/skuːl/
US/skuːl/

Meanings

  1. nouncountable or uncountable

    A place where children or young people go to be taught, or the time they spend there each day.

    Grammar: No article when you mean attending as a pupil: She is at school, but The school is new.

    Patterns

    • go to school
    • at school
    • start school

    My daughter walks to school with her friends.

    The school has about four hundred pupils.

    We were late for school because of the snow.

  2. nouncountable

    A part of a university or a specialised institution that teaches one subject area.

    Grammar: Often followed by of: the school of medicine.

    Patterns

    • school of something

    She studied at the school of nursing for three years.

    He applied to a famous art school in Chicago.

  3. nouncountable

    A group of thinkers or artists whose work shares the same ideas or style.

    Grammar: Usually in phrases like school of thought.

    Patterns

    • school of thought
    • the Impressionist school

    There are two schools of thought on how to treat the problem.

    The painter belonged to the Dutch school.

  4. nouncountable

    A large group of fish or other sea animals swimming together.

    Grammar: Takes of: a school of dolphins.

    Patterns

    • a school of something

    A school of silver fish flashed beneath the boat.

    Divers watched a school of tuna swim past.

Word forms

pluralschools

Common combinations

primary school
Her son starts primary school in September.
high school
They met in high school.
school year
The school year ends in June.
school of thought
One school of thought says prices will fall.
drop out of school
He dropped out of school to help on the farm.
after school
The kids play soccer after school.

Synonyms and how they differ

academy
Academy often names a school with a special focus, like music or sport, and sounds more formal than school.
college
College usually means higher education in the United States, whereas school generally means education for younger pupils.
shoal
Shoal is the other word for a group of fish, and is more common in British English than school.

Word family

schooling noun
education received at school
schoolchild noun
a child who attends school
schoolteacher noun
a person who teaches at a school
preschool noun
education for children before regular school

Commonly confused: school or scholl?

school vs scholl

This is a common misspelling; the correct spelling has only one l before the final letter pair, school.

Practice

Which sentence uses school in the sense of a group of animals?

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