prekindergarten

adj

1. (not-comparable)Before kindergarten, or not yet old enough to attend it.

noun

1. (US, countable, uncountable)The first formal academic learning environment for children, before kindergarten.

   “Kate Yourke does not have the heart to tell her daughter Coral she was rejected from the prekindergarten program at Public School 132 in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where her sister goes, even though siblings were supposed to get priority. […] This year, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein has streamlined and centralized the dizzying array of admission procedures for the city’s prekindergartens and middle schools.”