concrete
part of speech
noun (concrete — uncountable); adjective (concrete — a concrete wall; also: real, specific)
meaning for a pupil
1) A hard building material made by mixing cement, sand, small stones and water; it is soft when wet and sets very hard. tree →
2) As an adjective, made of concrete. tree →
3) Real and definite, something you can see or touch, not just an idea: "concrete evidence", "concrete objects". tree →
sense in the lessons
In building and science, concrete is used for footpaths, bridges and buildings; it sets as a chemical reaction, not just by drying. In maths, "concrete" materials are real objects such as blocks and counters used to help count. In grammar, a concrete noun names something you can see or touch, like "table"; an abstract noun names an idea, like "kindness". Phrases: wet concrete, concrete path, concrete mixer, concrete evidence, concrete noun.
examples
- The Talmuds were first collected into a concrete whole, and printed in Venice, 1520 a.d. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- The Talmuds were first collected into a concrete whole, and printed in Venice, 1520 A.D. (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
- He endeavors to show how the ideal became, after numerous emanations, more condensed, palpable and concrete. (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →
- The workers poured wet concrete for the new path. tree →
- Don't write in wet concrete. tree →
- The bridge is made of concrete and steel. tree →
- "Dog" is a concrete noun, but "joy" is abstract. tree →
- Use concrete objects like cubes to show the sum. tree →
- We need concrete proof, not guesses. tree →
- I scraped my knee on the concrete. tree →
note
As a material it is uncountable: "some concrete", not "a concrete". Confusion: "cement" is only one ingredient of concrete. Safety: wet cement and concrete can burn the skin, and building sites are not for playing. Concrete noun = can be sensed (seen, touched, heard); abstract noun = an idea or feeling.
In the corpora
- Modern elephant houses have deep sand and heated floors, because years on hard concrete hurt elephants' feet and joints.
- Soft ground like wood chips, sand or rubber under a climbing frame makes falls less dangerous than concrete.
- Romans were great engineers, building aqueducts for water, arches, domes and concrete.
- Old roofs often have skylights and thin panels that break when stepped on, and a fall onto concrete can kill.
- Concrete sets because of a chemical reaction with water, not because it dries; wet cement can burn skin.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «concrete» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.