Kin"der*gar`ten (?), n. [G., lit., children's garden; kinder (pl. of kind child, akin to E. kin kindred) + garten garden.]
A school for young children, conducted on the theory that education should be begun by gratifying and cultivating the normal aptitude for exercise, play, observation, imitation, and construction; -- a name given by Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, who introduced this method of training, in rooms opening on a garden.
© Webster 1913.