textbook

/ˌtɛkstˈbʊk/

/ˈtɛkstbʊk/

Other forms: textbooks

A textbook is an informational book that you use specifically for a class at school. Your biology textbook might be so heavy that you dread lugging it to class.

Textbooks are manuals written for instruction in a subject, rather than books you might read for fun. Today many students read textbooks in electronic form, rather than as bound hardcovers. Starting around the 19th century (with easy access to printing and standardized education in many parts of the world), textbooks became a common educational tool. Earlier, a textbook was a name for "a book with wide spaces between the lines."

Definitions of textbook

1. noun

   a book prepared for use in schools or colleges
   “his economics textbook is in its tenth edition”

   synonyms: school text, schoolbook, text, text edition

   types:

   crammer

   a textbook designed for cramming

   introduction

   a basic or elementary instructional text

   primer

   an introductory textbook

   reader

   one of a series of texts for students learning to read

   McGuffey Eclectic Readers

   readers that combined lessons in reading with moralistic messages

   speller

   an introductory textbook to teach spelling

   hornbook

   a primer that provides instruction in the rudiments or basic skills of a branch of knowledge

   type of:

   book

   a written work or composition that has been published (printed on pages bound together)
2. adjective

   according to or characteristic of a casebook or textbook; typical
   “a textbook example”

   synonyms: casebook

   standard

   established or well-known or widely recognized as a model of authority or excellence