summer camp

noun

plural summer camps

1

: a camp (see camp entry 1 sense 1d) for children or adolescents that operates during the summer and that often provides lodging for stays of days or weeks

… traditional summer camps—where your child rides a horse, paddles a canoe, reads a compass, and roasts s'mores around a campfire …

—David Lansing

… summer camp is about campfires, trail hikes and goofy skits. It's a chance to meet kids from different cities and to learn to sleep through the snores of cabin mates.

—Emily Seftel

also : such a camp that provides instruction of a specified kind

went to an arts summer camp

compare day camp

2

: an online usually educational program for children or adolescents offered during the summer

… a virtual summer camp offering free classes in everything from slime-making to dinosaurs to make-your-own Lego movies. Kids aged five through 18 can create their own schedule, with hour-long classes five days a week for each session.

—Lisa Milbrand

Examples of summer camp in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The boy was walking through a trail in the forest at a Boy Scouts of America summer camp at the Owasippe Scout Reservation in western Michigan when a tree fell and hit him, according to the sheriff's office. — Megan Fahrney, ABC News, 24 July 2026

Our annual summer camp budget funded a new kind of adventure. — Melissa Petro, Travel + Leisure, 22 July 2026

For $5 a week per child, her sons attended a summer camp run by the Urban Park Rangers in Marine Park. — Santul Nerkar, New York Times, 20 July 2026

The Texas flooding came after last July's flood on the Guadalupe River, which killed more than 130 people, including 28 at a Christian summer camp for girls, Camp Mystic. — Thao Nguyen, USA Today, 20 July 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1882, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for summer camp

• firedamp
• amp
• champ
• clamp
• cramp
• damp
• gamp
• lamp
• ramp
• samp
• scamp
• stamp