lyceums

Noun

lyceum (plural lyceums or lycea)

1. (historical) A public hall designed for lectures, readings, or concerts.
   • At a lyceum, not long since, I felt that the lecturer had chosen a theme too foreign to himself, and so failed to interest me as much as he might have done.1854, Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle
2. (US, historical) A school, especially European, at a stage between elementary school and college, a lycée.
   • We burst out laughing. She told me that one of her teachers at the "lyceum" used to say that whenever any of the students got up to anything.2021, Pedro Mairal, The Woman from Uruguay, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 109
3. An association for literary improvement.

See all 4 meanings of lyceum