elementary

From Latin elementārius (“elementary”), from elementum (“one of the four elements of antiquity; fundamentals”) + -ārius (adjective-forming suffix). Cognate with French élémentaire.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /(ˌ)ɛlɪ̈ˈmɛnt(ə)ɹɪ/
• (General American) enPR: ĕl'ĭ-mĕn′tə-rē, -trē, IPA^(key): /ˌɛlɪ̈ˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/
• Rhymes: -ɛntəɹi, -ɛntɹi
• Hyphenation: el‧e‧men‧ta‧ry

elementary (comparative more elementary, superlative most elementary)

1. Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
2. Relating to an elementary school.
3. (physics) Relating to a subatomic particle.
   • 2012 March 1, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 146:

     The physics of elementary particles in the 20th century was distinguished by the observation of particles whose existence had been predicted by theorists sometimes decades earlier.

4. (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.

elementary (plural elementaries)

1. An elementary school
2. (mythology, mysticism) A supernatural being which is associated with the elements.
   • 2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1:

     […] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […]

   • 2007, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, page 332:

     But, in Africa these became definite in their Egyptian Types, by means of which we can follow their development from the elementaries of Chaos and Space into Celestial Intelligencers […]

• “elementary” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.