elementary
el·e·ment·a·ry/ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/adjective, noun
elementary is spelled E-L-E-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y, 5 syllables: el·e·ment·a·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is elementry: about 650 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Elementary is an adjective meaning “Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something”.
How many letters and syllables are in elementary?
| Letters | 10: E-L-E-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5: el·e·ment·a·ry |
| In writing | 21 times per million words; the 4,076th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 3; the most searched, elementry, about 650 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell elementary?
Elementary is spelled E-L-E-M-E-N-T-A-R-Y. 3 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for elementary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is elementary?
Elementary appears 21 times per million words in written English, the 4,076th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce elementary?
- UK /ˌɛlɪˈmɛntəɹi/
- UK /ˌɛlɪˈmɛntɹi/
- US /ˌɛləˈmɛntəɹi/
Elementary has 5 syllables, split el·e·ment·a·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-elementary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with elementary?
2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as elementary from its last stressed vowel (/ɛntəɹi/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of elementary
- more elementary comparative
- most elementary superlative
- elem
- elementaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does elementary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
- 2
Very simple.
- 3
Relating to an elementary school.
- 4
Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
- 5
Relating to a subatomic particle.
- 6
Involving only a single reaction step and transition state.
- 7
Which performs a row or column operation on another matrix when the two are multiplied; see Elementary matrix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia (Such matrices are called "elementary" because they generate the general linear group).
- 8
Arising from Vieta's formulas; see Elementary symmetric polynomial on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
noun
- 1
informalEllipsis of elementary school.
At Lakeside Elementary I learned to appreciate the forest.
- 2
A supernatural being associated with the elements.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate elementary?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of elementary: elem, elem..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Elementary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | élémentaire |
| German | elementar |
| Portuguese | elementar , fundamental |
| Spanish | elementario , elemental |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does elementary come from?
From Middle English elementare, from Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire. By surface analysis, element + -ary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).