Word.ws English Dictionary

sixth form

sixth form noun: the final two years of secondary education, during which students of about 16 to 18 years of age prepare for their A-level examinations or equivalent qualifications.

Noun

sixth form (countable and uncountable, plural sixth forms)

  1. (UK except Scotland) The final two years of secondary education, during which students of about 16 to 18 years of age prepare for their A-level examinations or equivalent qualifications.
    • Nathaniel: Maister, there is nobody to teach in the sixth form.
      Maister: What a thing is this?
      N: He is sick in bed.
      M: How do you know?
      N: One of the scholars in his house told me so.1653, Corderius, Colloquia scholastica Anglo-Latina, […] 1653, page 220
  2. a sixth form college.

Forms of sixth form

pluralsixth forms
alternative form6th form

Origin of sixth form

Earlier educational naming conventions in public schools termed every two years of education "forms" (itself sometimes said to be from form (“bench”), where students of certain ages would sit together, though disputed, or alternatively from form (“established method of expression or practice”)), where Years 12 and 13 (i.e. ages 16 to 18) was the "sixth" and final form. State schools adopted the term "sixth form" and retained it when the rest of the form structure was dropped.

Words formed from sixth form

Questions about sixth form

What does sixth form mean?
Sixth form means the final two years of secondary education, during which students of about 16 to 18 years of age prepare for their A-level examinations or equivalent qualifications.
What part of speech is sixth form?
Sixth form is a noun.
What is the plural of sixth form?
The plural of sixth form is sixth forms.

Words near sixth form in the dictionary

  1. sixth cousin
  2. sixth cousins
  3. sixth cranial nerve
  4. Sixth Day
  5. sixth disease
  6. sixth form
  7. sixth form college
  8. sixth form colleges
  9. sixth forms
  10. sixth grade
  11. sixth grader

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sixth form (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: “sixth form.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sixth_form. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.