"clown school" meaning in English

See clown school in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: clown schools [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} clown school (plural clown schools)
  1. An educational institution whose main objective is training students to become clowns. Translations (school for training clowns): clownschool [feminine] (Dutch)
    Sense id: en-clown_school-en-noun-4BuxJDoP Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Dutch translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 82 18 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 74 26 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 77 23 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 89 11 Disambiguation of Terms with Dutch translations: 72 28 Disambiguation of 'school for training clowns': 88 12
  2. (figurative, derogatory, idiomatic) An institution, program, or organization that is viewed as unprofessional, incompetent, or a complete joke. Tags: derogatory, figuratively, idiomatic
    Sense id: en-clown_school-en-noun-s1p~XZ3P

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clown schools",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "clown school (plural clown schools)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "74 26",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "77 23",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "89 11",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "72 28",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An educational institution whose main objective is training students to become clowns."
      ],
      "id": "en-clown_school-en-noun-4BuxJDoP",
      "links": [
        [
          "educational institution",
          "educational institution"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train"
        ],
        [
          "clown",
          "clown"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "88 12",
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "lang_code": "nl",
          "sense": "school for training clowns",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "clownschool"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "An institution, program, or organization that is viewed as unprofessional, incompetent, or a complete joke."
      ],
      "id": "en-clown_school-en-noun-s1p~XZ3P",
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, derogatory, idiomatic) An institution, program, or organization that is viewed as unprofessional, incompetent, or a complete joke."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "figuratively",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "clown school"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with Dutch translations"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "clown schools",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "clown school (plural clown schools)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "glosses": [
        "An educational institution whose main objective is training students to become clowns."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "educational institution",
          "educational institution"
        ],
        [
          "train",
          "train"
        ],
        [
          "clown",
          "clown"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English derogatory terms",
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An institution, program, or organization that is viewed as unprofessional, incompetent, or a complete joke."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "derogatory",
          "derogatory"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(figurative, derogatory, idiomatic) An institution, program, or organization that is viewed as unprofessional, incompetent, or a complete joke."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "derogatory",
        "figuratively",
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "lang_code": "nl",
      "sense": "school for training clowns",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "clownschool"
    }
  ],
  "word": "clown school"
}

Download raw JSONL data for clown school meaning in English (1.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-10-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (1a05e46 and e3d6d4e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.