paideia
/paɪˈdeɪ.ə/
paideia noun: an Athenian system of education designed to give students a broad cultural background focusing on integration into the public life of the city-state with subject matter including gymnastics, grammar, rhetoric, music, mathematics, geography, natural history, and philosophy.
Noun
paideia (uncountable)
- An Athenian system of education designed to give students a broad cultural background focusing on integration into the public life of the city-state with subject matter including gymnastics, grammar, rhetoric, music, mathematics, geography, natural history, and philosophy
- The epitome of physical and intellectual achievement to which an Ancient Greek citizen could aspire; societal and cultural perfection.
- An early model of Christian higher learning having theology as its chief subject.
- Synonyms:
- humanitas
- A pedagogical system focusing on providing children with a broad and balanced education.
Synonyms of paideia
- humanitas
Origin of paideia
From Ancient Greek παιδείᾱ (paideíā, “rearing of a child, education”), from παιδεύω (paideúō, “rear a child”) + -ίᾱ (-íā), from παῖς (paîs, “child”).
Questions about paideia
- What does paideia mean?
- Paideia means an Athenian system of education designed to give students a broad cultural background focusing on integration into the public life of the city-state with subject matter including gymnastics, grammar, rhetoric, music, mathematics, geography, natural history, and philosophy.
- What part of speech is paideia?
- Paideia is a noun.
- How do you pronounce paideia?
- Paideia is pronounced /paɪˈdeɪ.ə/.
Words near paideia in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: paideia (page history and authors). 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:
Cite this entry: “paideia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/paideia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.