preparatory school

noun

1. a private or parochial secondary school, especially one boarding its students and providing a college-preparatory education.
2. British. a private elementary school, especially one preparing its students for public school.

preparatory school

noun

1. (in Britain) a private school, usually single-sex and for children between the ages of 6 and 13, generally preparing pupils for public school
2. (in the US) a private secondary school preparing pupils for college

Word History and Origins

Origin of preparatory school¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

The bulk of the returned payment was used to establish a Western-style preparatory school, which became Tsinghua University, China’s premier technological institution.

From MIT Technology Review

He was the 1954 valedictorian of what is now Northfield Mount Hermon, a preparatory school he attended on a scholarship and with money from summer jobs at hayfields.

From Washington Post

The speaker, Emma Warnecke, was a senior at Saint Mary’s Hall, a private college preparatory school in San Antonio, Texas.

From Time

They come in and actually helped them to form this new organization, to where it was referred to as a preparatory school for NATO.

From Freakonomics

He went to public school until the 7th grade, and then attended Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada Flintridge, California.

From The Daily Beast

After preparatory school in Illinois, Hay went to Brown University, where he amused men and charmed women.

From The Daily Beast

It wasn't just any dining room, but part of a sprawling nine-story townhouse that once housed an entire preparatory school.

From The Daily Beast

And going to college was quite another thing from looking forward to a term at a preparatory school.

From Project Gutenberg

So she remained faithful to her home duties, but each year kept up with the graduating class of a local preparatory school.

From Project Gutenberg

Before night the study looked as homelike as the old room had at the preparatory school.

From Project Gutenberg

A strict, disciplinary master required to teach English at a preparatory school for the Army.

From Project Gutenberg

It put a singing in my heart to find myself at last a student in a regular preparatory school, with my face set toward college.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• prep school
• private school