Word.ws English Dictionary

Synonyms of public school

5 similar words

Another word for public school is boarding school. Other synonyms of public school are private school, comprehensive school, free school and state school.

Synonyms and similar words for public school

nounCertain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the...

  • boarding schoolA residential school, where the students are housed on-site (the school provides board and lodging as well as...
  • private schoolAn educational institution that operates independently of government administration or public funding, typically...

nounA publicly funded and administered school; (UK, Ireland) such schools in the context of other...

  • comprehensive schoolA normal secondary school, accepting pupils of all abilities; replaced the secondary modern schools and grammar schools.
  • free schoolAn educational institution that provides tuition-free schooling, often with greater autonomy than traditional...
  • state schoolA government-funded school, funded by taxes.

Meaning of public school

  1. noun Certain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the personal lands of its students or (from the 19th century) the feepaying secondary schools which developed from or were modelled upon them; a British boarding school.
  2. noun A publicly funded and administered school; (UK, Ireland) such schools in the context of other countries.
  3. noun A college or university.

Full definition of public school

public school in other languages

Questions about synonyms of public school

What is another word for public school?
Public school has 5 synonyms on Word.ws, such as boarding school, private school, comprehensive school, free school and state school.
What does public school mean?
Public school means certain private schools, particularly (initially) any grammar school operated apart from the personal lands of its students or (from the 19th century) the feepaying secondary schools which developed from or were modelled upon them; a British boarding school.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: public school (page history and authors) and the entries of the words listed. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws grouped the synonyms and antonyms by meaning and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “Synonyms of public school.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/synonyms/public_school. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.