For example, in the Ottoman Empire during the Early Modern Period, madrasas had lower schools and specialised schools where the students became known as danişmends.

Unlike the use of the word school in British English, the word madrasah more closely resembles the term school in American English, in that it can refer to a university-level or post-graduate school as well as to a primary or secondary school. In the Arabic language, the word مدرسة madrasah simply means the same as school does in the English language, whether that is private, public or parochial school, as well as for any primary or secondary school whether Muslim, non-Muslim, or secular.

The word is also present as a loanword with the same general meaning in many Arabic-influenced languages, such as: Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Pashto, Baluchi, Persian, Turkish, Azeri, Kurdish, Indonesian, Somali and Bosnian. Thus, madrasah literally means 'a place where learning and studying take place' or 'place of study'. The word madrasah derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root د-ر-س D-R-S 'to learn, study', using the wazn ( morphological form or template) مفعل(ة) mafʻal(ah), meaning 'a place where something is done'. From there, the construction of madrasas spread across much of the Muslim world over the next few centuries, often adopting similar models of architectural design. The origin of this type of institution is widely credited to Nizam al-Mulk, a vizier under the Seljuks in the 11th century, who was responsible for building the first network of official madrasas in Iran, Mesopotamia, and Khorasan. In an architectural and historical context, the term generally refers to a particular kind of institution in the historic Muslim world which primarily taught Islamic law and jurisprudence ( fiqh), as well as other subjects on occasion. In countries outside the Arab world, the word usually refers to a specific type of religious school or college for the study of the religion of Islam, though this may not be the only subject studied.

The word is variously transliterated Madrasah arifah, medresa, madrassa, madraza, medrese, etc. مدارس, madāris) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning.

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