elementary
Syllables: el·e·ment·a·ry/ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəɹi/US/ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/
elementary adjective: relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something. Also the ellipsis of elementary school.
Adjective
elementary (comparative more elementary, superlative most elementary)
- Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
- Very simple.
- Relating to an elementary school.
- Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
- It is clear, therefore, that idealism contradicts the most elementary scientific knowledge and is contrary to all progress, whether social or intellectual.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford: Clarendon Press, translation of Główne nurty marksizmu: rozwój (in...
- The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.2012 March, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146
- Relating to a subatomic particle.
- Involving only a single reaction step and transition state.
- Which performs a row or column operation on another matrix when the two are multiplied; see Elementary matrix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Such matrices are called "elementary" because they generate the general linear group).
- Arising from Vieta's formulas; see Elementary symmetric polynomial on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- Straightforward, employing only basic techniques; not requiring substantial knowledge (of some particular domain, object, etc.).
- Making no use of complex analysis.
- Sublunary; not celestial; belonging to the sublunary sphere, to which the four classical elements (earth, air, fire and water) were confined; composed of or pertaining to these four elements.
Noun
elementary (countable and uncountable, plural elementaries)
- A supernatural being associated with the elements.
- The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45
- […] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […]2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1
Also used as
elementary is also the ellipsis of elementary school.
elementary meaning in Urdu and Punjabi
elementary in Urdu
- ایلیمنٹری
elementary in Punjabi
- ਐਲੀਮੈਂਟਰੀ
Examples of elementary in a sentence
- The fermions treated by the Standard Model are the (composite) baryons and the (elementary) leptons and quarks.
- The piercing noise of the children could be heard two blocks from the elementary school.
- The original Greek alphabet of sixteen letters was called kyriological, because it represented the pure elementary sounds.
Forms of elementary
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more elementary |
| superlative | most elementary |
| alternative Philippines | elem |
| alternative form (obsolete) | elementar |
| Noun | |
| plural | elementaries |
Origin of elementary
From Middle English elementare, from Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire. By surface analysis, element + -ary.
Words formed from elementary
- elementarily
- elementariness
- elementarism
- elementary algebra
- elementary cellular automaton
- elementary charge
- elementary equivalence
- elementary function
- elementary geometry
- elementary matrix
- elementary, my dear Watson
- elementary particle
- elementary school
- elementary schooler
- elementary spaceship
- elementary substance
- elementary symmetric polynomial
- elementary topos
- monoelementary
- nonelementary
- postelementary
- subelementary
- superelementary
- unelementary
Phrases with elementary
Words that rhyme with elementary
Questions about elementary
- What does elementary mean?
- Elementary means relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
- What is elementary in Urdu?
- Elementary in Urdu is ایلیمنٹری. See Elementary meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is elementary?
- Elementary can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce elementary?
- Elementary is pronounced /ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəɹi/ (UK).
Words near elementary in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: elementary (page history and authors); elementary (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); elementary (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-elementary.wav.
Cite this entry: “elementary.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/elementary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.