# elementary
## English
### Alternative forms

* elementar (obsolete)
* elem (Philippines)

### Etymology

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.

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /(ˌ)ɛlɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹɪ/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General American) enPR: ĕl'ĭ-mĕn′tə-rē, -trē, IPA: /ˌɛlɪˈmɛnt(ə)ɹi/
* Rhymes: -ɛntəɹi, -ɛntɹi
* Hyphenation: el‧e‧men‧ta‧ry

### Adjective

elementary (comparative more elementary, superlative most elementary)
* Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
* Very simple.
* Relating to an elementary school.
* (sciences) Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
** (physics) Relating to a subatomic particle.
** (chemistry, of a reaction) Involving only a single reaction step and transition state.
** (mathematics, of a square matrix) 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).
** (mathematics, of a symmetric polynomial) Arising from Vieta's formulas; see Elementary symmetric polynomial on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
** 2012 March, 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.
* (mathematics, of an argument or proof) Straightforward, employing only basic techniques; not requiring substantial knowledge (of some particular domain, object, etc.).
** (number theory, of an argument or proof, mostly historical outside the phrase "Elementary number theory") Making no use of complex analysis.
* (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.

#### Derived terms

* elementarily
* elementariness
* elementarism
* elementary algebra
* elementary cellular automaton
* elementary charge
* elementary equivalence
* elementary function
* elementary matrix
* elementary particle
* elementary school
* elementary schooler
* elementary substance
* elementary symmetric polynomial
* elementary topos
* monoelementary
* nonelementary
* postelementary
* subelementary
* superelementary
* unelementary

#### Translations
### Noun

elementary (plural elementaries)
* An elementary school.
    At Lakeside Elementary I learned to appreciate the forest.
* (mythology, mysticism) A supernatural being associated with the elements.
** 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45:The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness.
** 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 […]

### References

* ↑ “elementāre, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “elementary, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.