Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or constituting the basic, essential, or fundamental part.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or involving the fundamental or simplest aspects of a subject.
  • adjective Of or relating to an elementary school or elementary education.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of the nature of an infinitesimal element or part.
  • Pertaining to or of the nature of an element or elements; primary; simple; uncompounded; incomplex: as, an elementary substance.
  • Initial; rudimental; containing, teaching, or discussing first principles, rules, or rudiments: as, an elementary treatise or disquisition; elementary education; elementary schools.
  • Treating of elements; collecting, digesting, or explaining principles: as, an elementary writer.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having only one principle or constituent part; consisting of a single element; simple; uncompounded.
  • adjective Pertaining to, or treating of, the elements, rudiments, or first principles of anything; initial; rudimental; introductory.
  • adjective Pertaining to one of the four elements, air, water, earth, fire.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
  • adjective Relating to an elementary school.
  • adjective physics Relating to a subatomic particle.
  • adjective archaic 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.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective of or being the essential or basic part
  • adjective easy and not involved or complicated
  • adjective of or pertaining to or characteristic of elementary school or elementary education

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The phrase is not stronger than that with which the “Grammar of Science” challenged the fight: —“Anything more hopelessly illogical than the statements with regard to Force and Matter current in elementary textbooks of science, it is difficult to imagine, ” opened Mr. Pearson, and the responsible author of the “elementary textbook, ” as he went on to explain, was Lord Kelvin himself.

    The Grammar of Science (1903) 1918

  • Strictly speaking, the term elementary as applied to most of the particles in the nucleus is inaccurate, for scientists now believe that all the particles except electrons are made of still more elementary particles called quarks.

    elementary particles 2002

  • The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security.

    Thestar.com - Home Page 2011

  • The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security.

    ABC News: Top Stories 2011

  • The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Associated Press 2011

  • The hackers, who call themselves LulzSec, said they pulled off what they described as an elementary attack to highlight Sony's "disgraceful" security.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • Specifically, there aren't enough students in elementary and high school with an interest in STEM and there aren't enough university graduates in STEM to fill current and future open positions.

    7 posts from August 2009 2009

  • Specifically, there aren't enough students in elementary and high school with an interest in STEM and there aren't enough university graduates in STEM to fill current and future open positions.

    Politics 2010

  • As well, we need more Catholics who believe along the lines of Fr. Schall in elementary and high school administration.

    Straight talk from Fr. Schall about... 2009

  • Specifically, there aren't enough students in elementary and high school with an interest in STEM and there aren't enough university graduates in STEM to fill current and future open positions.

    Marketing 2010

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