Textbook

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈtÉ›kst.bÊŠk/

Full definition of textbook

Noun

1. A coursebook, a formal manual of instruction in a specific subject, especially one for use in schools or colleges.

Adjective

1. Of or pertaining to textbooks or their style, especially in being dry and pedagogical; textbooky, textbooklike.
• 1917, George Ransom Twiss, A textbook in the principles of science teaching‎It is likely to kill interest, and give both teacher and pupils a didactic, textbook attitude at the very beginning.
• 2000, Okasha El Daly, Janet Starkey, Desert travellers: from Herodotus to T.E. Lawrence‎They are mentioned in his flat, textbook voice, alongside schoolroom descriptions of topography and assessments of economic significance.
• 2004, David Henn, Old Spain and new Spain: the travel narratives of Camilo José Cela‎...a kind of descriptive account or a social, geographical, anthropological, or historical commentary that may at times have a certain textbook tone to it.
2. Having the typical characteristics of some class of phenomenon, so that it might be included as an example in a textbook.
• 1997, Alexander De Waal, Famine crimes: politics and the disaster relief industry in Africa‎It was a textbook case of how prompt government action could avert a major crisis.
• 2003, Felice Picano, A house on the ocean, a house on the bay‎Every night had been clear and star-studded, the progression of the moon through its phases absolutely textbook, its dance with the planets visible in the ecliptic...
• 2003, Robert J Art, Patrick M Cronin, The United States and coercive diplomacy‎In many ways the Korean nuclear crisis is a textbook example of coercive diplomacy — its strengths as well as the risks inherent in such a strategy.