eleven-plus

1 8.9

An exam once taken in Britain at about eleven to decide if a child can go to a grammar school

noun
/ɪˈlɛvən plʌs/

Archaic

: examen de once años

She studied hard for the eleven-plus exam to secure her spot in a good secondary school.

Examples

Many parents prepare their children for the eleven-plus test.
In the 1950s, every child had to sit the eleven-plus exam to determine their secondary education.
After passing the eleven-plus, he gained admission to a prestigious grammar school.
Her parents were anxious about her performance in the eleven-plus tests.
The eleven-plus exam was a significant milestone for students.
Many children in Britain take the eleven-plus at age eleven to determine their educational path.
Passing the eleven-plus was a significant achievement for him, as it meant he could attend a prestigious grammar school.

Synonyms

11-plus

vseleven-plus

Archaic

8.8

An exam in Britain for 11 or 12 year olds to get into grammar school

is the same exam but written using words instead of numerals

Surface Forms

eleven-plus singular

eleven-pluses plural

Morphology

eleven-plus = eleven (transparent) = plus + eleven

The compound is a straightforward combination of the number 'eleven' and 'plus' meaning 'and over', so the sense (an exam for age 11/older) is directly inferable from its parts. [Postprocessing: moved 'plus' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Eleven-plus is made of eleven and plus, which together mean 'eleven and older'. It was the name of a British test taken around age eleven to decide which kind of secondary school a child would attend.