grammar school

From Middle English gramere scole.

grammar school (countable and uncountable, plural grammar schools)

1. (archaic) A school that teaches its pupils the grammar system of a European language, especially Latin and Greek.

   Hyponym: Latin grammar school

2. (chiefly UK) A secondary school that stresses academic over practical or vocational education, until recent times open to those pupils who had passed the 11-plus examination.

   Synonym: (informal) grammar

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 382, about Thornton Dale:

     The largest building at one end, now used as a church hall, was originally the village's one-roomed grammar school, also endowed by the Lumleys.

   • 2008 July 12, John Mullan, “Where are they now?”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 5 December 2013:

     It is a world where grammar school is the only way up, but at the cost of subjugation to educational tyranny and eventual estrangement from the family that was once so "proud" of your achievements.

   • 2022 October 5, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: Reading to Southampton: Frome”, in RAIL, number 967, page 56:

     Bradshaw eulogises again about "considerable manufactures of woollen cloth", plus the "excellent grammar school, founded by Edward VI".

3. (US, rare, regional) Elementary school.

• direct grant grammar school

• Latin grammar school

• secondary modern school
• comprehensive school