Pupil. How often do you actually use the word? I've never heard anyone referring to a student as "pupil".

It's fairly standard in the UK, less so in conversation but news articles at least always say pupils for schools, but students for university

It’s probably going to vary based on region. At a guess it’ll be more common in the UK and less common in USA. We don’t use it often in Australia. It’s used enough that it’s good to know people aren’t talking about the part of your eye.

It's almost exclusively used in very formal contexts. Even then, it's rare. At least in the US I've never heard anyone use it. It only ever shows up in places like a school's student handbook (which is like the official rules of the school)

I'd probably say student but "pupil" doesn't sound at all strange to me. Schools who've gone fully up their own backsides refer to them as "Learners"

These days, many years since I was in school, not socialising with many teachers and not having school age kids? Not terribly often. But change any of those things and it’s a word I’d expect to hear. This is in England, it’s not used everywhere in the English speaking world. Edit: that said, it’s a word with a lot of near synonyms: student, child, school child, classmate. There’s a fair bit of unconscience nuance to picking which one is used in a given context. I think pupil is probably falling out of favour a bit.

That's what I was taught in school in Sweden, probably because we were taught British English. Today I would say "student" though, my English has been strongly Americanized over the years.

I suspect the difference (especially in UK) is between "Student" referring to someone who actively pursues an Academic Field; meanwhile "Pupil" refers to a person that is being trained to study Academic Pursuits.

Pretty much always in English (as spoken in England). A student is someone who attends university. In the the American version student spans a much wider age range.

I’m in the UK. Pupil is a very normal word. In my experience people would generally use ‘student’ to describe learners aged 16+ and ‘pupil’ for primary school children. Usage for secondary school children is mixed but they are probably more commonly described as students these days - it wouldn’t be weird to hear pupil though.

(UK) You will also hear it in legal circles - the final step of training as a barrister is pupillage, and the trainee is referred to as a pupil.

In the US, people may use the term pupil in the rare circumstance that there's a close/personal mentor-mentee relationship that is explicitly the case. That kind of master-student relationship is uncommon here, just because of how modern careers work, it's much more about who you know rather than becoming an apprentice to a master.

I think this depends a lot on region. Common in Australia, especially in documentation. Student is used plenty as well; you don't hear university students referred to as pupil though.

Here in Canada pupil is exclusively the black part of your eye. I'm *aware* that texts from like the Victorian era use the word for students and think maybe it's still modern somewhere. But I've never heard anyone say it and I would expect not to be understood if I tried to use it myself.

In UK and Ireland, pupil is the usual word for a young person in first or second level ( primary and secondary level) education. Student has, until fairly recently, been reserved for those at third level (University, college etc) education. Similarly, school is never used for a third level institution, as it appears to be in the US. It may, however, be used in the sense of faculty, as in the School of Medecine.

Cause there's been so many encounters of the word in English textbooks Because English Learning is important to OP - the first word in this sentence should be "because".

I’ve heard it a bunch in movies but not really in real life

In the US, almost never.

In Singapore we never use it

Pupil, at least in the United States, is seldom used. Student is much more common. It is common in literature and such, and most Americans will know the word, so I can't say it's never used.

It is used in the US, but it sounds old-fashioned.

In my experience, in US English, it is not *uncommon* so to speak but it's used primarily when talking about eyes, i.e., "I had my pupils dilated at the optometrist" or whatever. I know it can mean students, but my first thought when seeing it is eyes.

I hear it relatively regularly in the uk

standard word to describe children in school in the UK

Just out of curiosity, how do Canadians use these words?

Australian. To me pupils attend primary school (K-6) - "students" after that. But most common in conversation we'd say "schoolkids" for all levels before uni.

Used to be standard at school when I was growing up 70s and 80s. Then the country came with this learner nonsense (mid-90s) and now they're all called learners.

Yes and I would refer to a student as someone who is studying at a university. Not at a school.

I love the way these discussions usually only encompass the UK, the US, sometimes Canada and then usually Australia. As if those are the only places on Earth where English is spoken.

Interesting to learn in this thread that outside of the UK, Aus (and presumably NZ), the use of pupil is considered so archaic! As mentioned, pupil is also the common English term for the black part in the centre of the eye. The band Dilated Peoples is presumably a pun on the medical term 'dilated pupils', when the pupils are open very wide (common when you're high on recreational drugs).

It’s near totally absent in the US, but everyone knows what it means. Student is used instead.

I have heard of it being used (usually in some official context), but I personally don't use it very often.

I speak American English. I have never used this word, and I am a teacher.

One time, I think it was in elementary school, and I think we were all around 12 years old, the teacher was annoyed and told us that she had pupils, not students. She wouldn’t call us students because we didn’t study. She was making a point. It was lost on us. It’s a valid point, nevertheless.

American English would more usually call them “students”. Pupil is old-fashioned

In the United States, it's a word everyone knows and would recognize, but which would rarely be used. It sounds very stuffy and stilted to American ears.

It is not used so often in the U.S. these days, mostly we say students.

Pupil is absolutely normal in the UK. Students are people at university, 18+. Look at any random UK school website. For example, https://stockportgrammar.co.uk/

I can't tell you the last time I heard it in conversation in the US, in reference to students. I don't even hear it very often when talking about eyes. It will occasionally be a clue in a crossword or other word puzzle, though.

I left Scottish Secondary School as a pupil in 1970 and entered a Scots University as a student, dead simple, but I suspect the borderline has crept downwards since then.

I use it fairly often, but I'm a nurse and I'm always talking about eyes when I say it.

I prefer ‘student’, but now teachers say “kiddo” which irritates that crap outta me!

I teach middle school ELA. It’s not a common word, but I use it not infrequently because I like to use uncommon vocabulary to expand my students’.

I work in policy. "Per pupil spending" is spoken daily.

In the US, it's considered VERY old fashioned. It was common in the 1950's, but everyone just uses the word . student.

In the US we only use it when we refer to the black part of the eyeball.

I am a teacher in the US and I almost never hear the word “pupil” used here. I don’t think I’ve ever used it myself. We use “student.”

It's rarely used. It's used more often in a 1-1 scenario, when you are talking about someone specific, like a piano student for example. "Oh mark? yea, he is my pupil. " But even in that case it is not often, but there's nothing wrong with it.

Pupil is for primary school I'd have thought.

I've definitely heard it and read it, to me it honestly doesn't sound that old fashioned

Americans know what it means, but we never use it. It's likely British. 

Seldom except when I had a student named Iris. I would introduce her as, >"This is Iris, a pupil of mine." 🤦 The groans were deafening.

In the US it sounds somewhat old fashioned. I've mostly encountered it in books written mid-century or earlier.

Not common in western Canada but not really uncommon per se. Maybe gives British vibes but I feel my kids school would sometimes use it in written posts or newsletters.

In the UK I'd say "pupil" is more common than "student", at least to refer to people attending school up to the age of 18. At university "student" is definitely more common.

It depends on where you're from. That being said, it's literally never used here in the US.

You are right, in everyday conversation, native English speakers much more commonly say "student" than "pupil." "Pupil" sounds a bit old-fashioned or formal to many people today and is not used very often in casual speech. You're likely to see "pupil" more in older books, formal writing about education, or perhaps in specific regional dialects, but "student" is definitely the standard and most frequent word used for someone who is learning in a school.