1. elementary textbooks or primers, especially those used in early education
Usage: often historical
2. paddle-shaped boards with lessons printed on them, covered with transparent horn, used historically to teach children reading
Usage: historical; educational

Examples

• The colonial schoolchildren learned their alphabet from hornbooks.
• Museums display antique hornbooks used in 18th-century education.
• The teacher explained how hornbooks were the earliest form of textbooks.
• Legal hornbooks provide basic overviews of different areas of law.
• Students often start with hornbooks before moving to more complex materials.
• The hornbook’s transparent horn covering protected the printed lesson underneath.