école

École is a French noun meaning "school." It derives from the Latin schola through Old French, with the modern spelling reflecting the French pronunciation and the acute accent on é. The term is widely used in Francophone contexts to refer to institutions that provide instruction and learning.

In France and many other Francophone countries, "école" designates a range of educational institutions. It is commonly associated with primary education when paired with a qualifier such as "maternelle" (nursery) or "élémentaire" (elementary). Higher levels of schooling use different terms: "collège" for lower secondary and "lycée" for upper secondary. Nevertheless, the word appears in the names of several schools that cover specialized or higher education, such as École normale supérieure, École polytechnique, or École des hautes études. In France, the word also appears in the names of higher education institutions that belong to the "grandes écoles" system, which operates separately from the public university framework.

Outside the core French system, the term appears in the names of French-language schools across the world, including Canada, parts of Africa, and Europe. It often signals that instruction is conducted in French or follows French educational traditions, even when the institution operates within a different national system.