elementary

Pluralelementaries

1. 1
   adjective

   Very simple and easy to understand or do.

   The first questions on the test were elementary.

   Fixing the chair was elementary. We just tightened one screw.

   Similarsimple, easy, straightforward, trivial, basic

   Oppositedifficult, complex, complicated

2. 2
   adjective

   About the school grades for young children, usually from kindergarten to fifth grade.

   Both of her kids are elementary students at the school down the street.

   She teaches at the elementary level, working with second graders.

   Similarprimary

3. 3
   adjective

   Dealing with the most basic and important parts of something.

   The course covers the elementary rules of chess.

   Safe driving starts with a few elementary habits, like checking your mirrors.

   Similarbasic, fundamental, rudimentary, essential

   Oppositeadvanced

   Note
4. 4
   adjective

   Being one of the basic building blocks that bigger or more complex things are made from.

   Like LEGO bricks: small, simple pieces that everything bigger is built from.

   Cells are the elementary units of every living thing.

   In music class, we learned the elementary patterns that many rhythms are built from.

   Similarfundamental, basic

   Note
5. 5
   nouncolloquialcountable or uncountableabbreviationellipsis

   Short for elementary school. Use it in casual talk instead of saying the full name.

   My little brother is still in elementary.

   She made her best friends back in elementary.

   Note
6. 6
   adjective

   Describing the tiniest pieces of matter, which are not made of smaller parts.

   Electrons are elementary, so you cannot break them into smaller pieces.

   Scientists use giant machines to study elementary particles.

   Similarfundamental

   Oppositecomposite

   Note
7. 7
   adjective

   Needing only basic skills or knowledge, not advanced training.

   The fix was elementary: anyone who can use a screwdriver could do it.

   The workbook starts with elementary exercises that need only addition and subtraction.

   Similarbasic, simple, straightforward

   Oppositeadvanced

   Note
8. 8
   adjective

   Describing a chemical change that happens in one single step.

   This reaction is elementary: the two molecules meet and change in a single step.

   Many reactions in the textbook are not elementary because they hide several smaller steps.

   Note
9. 9
   adjective

   In math, proving facts about numbers without using advanced tools based on imaginary numbers.

   Her proof was elementary because it never used imaginary numbers.

   The book gives an elementary proof that prime numbers never run out.

   Note
10. 10
    adjective

    Describing a number grid that changes one row or column of another grid when multiplied.

    The teacher multiplied by an elementary matrix to swap the first two rows.

    Each elementary matrix does just one simple job, like doubling a row.

    Note
11. 11
    adjective

    Describing the most basic expressions that treat every variable in a group the same way.

    For two letters, the elementary expressions are their sum and their product.

    Any expression that stays the same when you swap the letters can be written using the elementary expressions in those letters.

    Note
12. 12
    nouncountable

    A magic spirit believed to live in fire, water, air, or earth.

    In the story, an elementary made of flame guarded the cave.

    She read about elementaries that were said to live in rivers and storms.

    Similarelemental

    Note

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