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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

nursery.

A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on.

7 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈnɜːsəɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɜːsɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˈnɝsəɹi/General-American/ˈnɝsɹi/General-American
  1. A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on. Especially in European countries: a room or area in a household set apart for the care of children.

    broadly · countable · uncountable
  2. A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on. An institution for small children who not yet have begun primary school during daytime (when their parents work); a daycare centre.

    British · UK · countable · uncountable
  3. A place where nursing (“breastfeeding”) or the raising of children is carried on. The first year of pre-school.

    Philippines · countable · uncountable
  4. A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted.

    also · countable · figuratively
  5. A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted. A place where animals breed, or where young animals are naturally or artificially reared (for example, on a farm).

    also · countable · figuratively · uncountable
  6. A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted. A place where young shrubs, trees, vines, etc., are cultivated for transplanting, or (more generally) made available for public sale, a garden centre; also (obsolete) a plantation of young trees.

    also · countable · figuratively · uncountable
  7. A place where anything is fostered and growth promoted. A club or team for developing the skills of young players.

    also · countable · figuratively · uncountable
  8. Something which educates and nurtures.

    countable
    Commerce is the nursery of seamen.
  9. Ellipsis of nursery cannon (“a carom shot involving balls that are very close together”).

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis
  10. Someone or something that is nursed; a nursling.

    countable · obsolete · rare
  11. The act of nursing or rearing.

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English noricerie, norserye (“children's nursery; state of being fostered or nursed; education, upbringing”) [and other forms], from Old French norricerie, nourricerie, from norrice, nourrice (modern French nourrice (“childminder, nanny; wet nurse”)) + -erie (suffix forming feminine nouns). Norrice and nourrice are derived from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), from Latin nūtrīcius (“that nurses or suckles; nourishing”), from nūtriō (“to breastfeed, nurse, suckle”), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)neh₂- (“to flow”). The English word may be analysed as nourice, nurse + -ery (suffix forming nouns meaning ‘place of’).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.