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.
Relating to the basic, essential or fundamental part of something.
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Very simple.
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Relating to an elementary school.
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Sciences Fundamental: serving as a building block for more complicated structures or processes.
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.2012 March 23, Jeremy Bernstein, “A Palette of Particles”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 146:
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Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics, Sciences Relating to a subatomic particle.
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Chemistry, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, SciencesOf a reaction Involving only a single reaction step and transition state.
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Mathematics, SciencesOf 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).
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Mathematics, SciencesOf a symmetric polynomial Arising from Vieta's formulas; see Elementary symmetric polynomial on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
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Mathematics, SciencesOf an argument or proof Straightforward, employing only basic techniques; not requiring substantial knowledge (of some particular domain, object, etc.).
Mostly historical outside the phrase "Elementary number theory"
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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.
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.
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Abbreviation, Ellipsis, Informal Ellipsis of elementary school.
At Lakeside Elementary I learned to appreciate the forest.
He was my dentist. My mom took me to him back in elementary and junior high.2011 May 3, Lee Livingston, “Cleveland – Summer of 1962”, in In the Rearview Mirror: A Road Trip into the Heart of Another Country – America 1961, Carthay Press, →ISBN, page 146:
The demon (or elementary) of the South-West wind was particularly dreaded, as being the gini of fever and madness.1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 45:
[…] the spiritual man is either translated like Enoch and Elias to the higher state, or falls down lower than an elementary again […]2003, H P Blavatsky, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, volume 1:
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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 […]2007, Gerald Massey, The Natural Genesis, page 332: