public school

1. 1.

   a tuition free school in the United States supported by taxes and controlled by a school board

   Broaderschool

   Narrowercharter school
2. 2.

   private independent secondary school in Great Britain supported by endowment and tuition

   Broadersecondary school

   NarrowerEton CollegeWinchester College

   United Kingdom

Questions about public school

What does public school mean?

public school means "a tuition free school in the United States supported by taxes and controlled by a school board". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

Is public school a common word?

public school is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.