Meaning & use
truancy
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
The act of staying away from school without permission.
Grammar: Uncountable: no plural form. Use 'truancy' for the general concept, not 'a truancy'.
Patterns
- truancy from school
- reduce truancy
- truancy rates
The school has a strict policy to tackle truancy.
Truancy rates have fallen since the new mentoring program started.
She was worried about her son's truancy and talked to his teacher.
Common combinations
- truancy rate
- The truancy rate at the high school dropped by 10 percent this year.
- truancy officer
- A truancy officer visits families whose children often miss school.
- combat truancy
- The city launched a campaign to combat truancy among teenagers.
Synonyms and how they differ
- absenteeism
- A more general term for being absent from work or school, often used in official contexts; truancy specifically means absence without permission.
- skipping school
- Informal phrase with the same meaning; truancy is the formal term used in policies and reports.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: truancy or truant?
truancy vs truant
Truant is the person who skips school; truancy is the act or habit.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'truancy' correctly?
Choose one answer.
Truancy is an uncountable noun meaning the act of skipping school without permission; it is used correctly in option C. Option A uses it as a countable noun for a person (should be 'truant'), option B describes excused absence, and option D treats it as a countable offense.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “truancy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.