kindergartner

kin·der·gart·ner
K5I1N1D2E1R1G2A1R1T1N1E1R1
US/ˈkɪndɚˌɡɑrtnɚ/UK/ˈkɪndəˌɡɑːtnə/

noun

A child who attends a kindergarten.

UncommonScrabble 19

Meanings

kindergartner1

nounkindergartner (plural kindergartners)

plural kindergartners · alternative uncommon kindergartener · alternative nonstandard Kindergärtner · alternative nonstandard kindergärtner

  1. A child who attends a kindergarten.

    I partnered the older kids with my kindergartners and let everyone get a taste of teaching or learning from someone different.

    1993, Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Sower, HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP (2019), page 90
    1 more example

    All 50 states have had school immunization requirements since the beginning of the 1980s, with incoming kindergartners needing shots to protect against diseases including measles, polio and tetanus. No states require a Covid-19 vaccine for schoolchildren.

    2025 September 3, Deidre McPhillips, Shawn Nottingham, “Florida plans to end vaccine mandates statewide, including for schoolchildren”, in CNN

kindergartner2

nounkindergartner (plural kindergartners)

plural kindergartners · alternative Kindergärtner · alternative kindergärtner

  1. rareA person who teaches at a kindergarten.

    She went to New York City in 1872 to train under German kindergartner Maria Kraus-Boelte[.]

    1999, Richard J. Altenbaugh, Historical Dictionary of American Education, page 48
    4 more examples

    But the heart is generally larger than the creed, as was once strikingly evidenced to me by Louisa Frankenberg, a dear, devout old German kindergartner, who had learned the art of kindergartning [...]

    1887, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary School

    [Jean-Jacques] Rousseau rightly insists that man’s education begins at his birth, and that what is acquired unconsciously far exceeds, in amount and importance, what is acquired consciously and through instruction.¹ […] ¹ This is a truth to which kindergærtners ought to give serious heed.

    1898, Thomas Davidson, “Rousseau’s Educational Theories”, in Rousseau and Education According to Nature (Nicholas Murray Butler, editor, The Great Educators), New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, section “Infancy”, page 107

    I am a kindergartner, teaching in the Harrington School, New Bedford, Mass., and am a reader of the “Kindergarten Primary Magazine.”

    1919, Harriet L. Shafter, letter, in J. H. Schults, editor, The Kindergarten-Primary Magazine, volume XXXII, Manistee, Mich.: The Kindergarten Magazine Company, page 92, column 1

    The book that laid the groundwork for this new ideology was written by a German kindergartner who had emigrated to America in the late 1860s.

    1997, Barbara Beatty, Preschool Education in America: The Culture of Young Children

Synonyms & antonyms

nouna child who attends a preschool or kindergarten

Also see

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

kindergartner · noun

From kindergarten + -er, with spelling influenced by German Kindergärtner (“kindergarten teacher”).

Full word history & related roots →

kindergartner · noun

  1. GermanKindergärtner
  2. Englishkindergartner

From German Kindergärtner.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Finnish lastentarhanopettaja
  • lastentarhanopettajaperson who teaches at a kindergarten
German Kindergartenkind, Kindergartenschüler
  • Kindergartenkindchild who attends a kindergarten
  • Kindergartenschülerchild who attends a kindergarten
  • Kindergartenschülerinchild who attends a kindergarten
  • Kindergärtlerchild who attends a kindergarten
  • Kindergärtlerinchild who attends a kindergarten
  • Kindergärtnerperson who teaches at a kindergarten
  • Kindergärtnerinperson who teaches at a kindergarten
Hungarian óvodás, ovis
  • óvodáschild who attends a kindergarten
  • ovischild who attends a kindergarten
  • óvónőperson who teaches at a kindergarten
Japanese 幼稚園児, 園児
  • 幼稚園児 (youchienji)child who attends a kindergarten
  • 園児 (enji)child who attends a kindergarten
Polish przedszkolak, przedszkolanka
  • przedszkolakchild who attends a kindergarten
  • przedszkolankaperson who teaches at a kindergarten
Russian детса́довец, детса́довка
  • детса́довец (detsádovec)child who attends a kindergarten
  • детса́довка (detsádovka)child who attends a kindergarten
  • воспита́тель (vospitátelʹ)person who teaches at a kindergarten
  • воспита́тельница (vospitátelʹnica)person who teaches at a kindergarten
Slovak škôlkar
  • škôlkarchild who attends a kindergarten
Cite this entry
APA

kindergartner. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kindergartner

MLA

“kindergartner.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kindergartner. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kindergartner,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kindergartner.

Source: kindergartner on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.