pyramid
part of speech
noun (pyramid, pyramids)
meaning for a pupil
1) A pyramid is a solid shape with a flat bottom (base) and sides shaped like triangles that meet at a point at the top. A square pyramid has 5 faces. tree →
2) The Pyramids of Egypt are huge old stone buildings of this shape, made as tombs for kings. tree →
3) A pyramid is also a pile of things in rows that get smaller towards the top. tree →
sense in the lessons
Interpretation: The old writers picture creation as a pyramid with one point on top, the One God, and a broad base below, the many created things. In the primary lessons: In maths: a solid shape with faces, edges and corners (vertices) to count; also a stack of things in rows that get smaller to the top, so add the rows. In history: the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt were built thousands of years ago. In science: a food pyramid shows which foods to eat most. Phrases: square pyramid, triangular pyramid, the Great Pyramid, food pyramid.
examples
- The whole creation is thus contemplated as a pyramid, terminating in a point at the top with a broad basis. [See Dr. Graetz's Gnosticismus, p. 224.] (Sefer Yetzirah, Kalisch 1877) tree →
- A square pyramid has 5 faces. tree →
- He built a pyramid of cans with 4 in the bottom row. tree →
- Each row of the pyramid has one fewer block. tree →
- How many edges does a square pyramid have? tree →
- The ancient Egyptians built pyramids for their kings. tree →
- A triangular pyramid has 4 faces, all triangles. tree →
- The cheerleaders made a human pyramid. tree →
- The food pyramid shows we need lots of fruit and vegetables. tree →
- Then I buried them beneath a pyramid of sand, which covers them all. tree →
note
Countable. A pyramid is named after the shape of its base: square pyramid, triangular pyramid. A shape word: count faces, edges, corners. In a stacked pyramid each row is one less, so add the rows. Trap: a square pyramid has 5 faces, 8 edges and 5 corners. Trap: a cone is not a pyramid (its base is a circle).
In the corpora
- The last mammoths lived on a small Arctic island until about 4,000 years ago, when the pyramids of Egypt were already built.
- Cleopatra lived closer in time to us than to the building of the Great Pyramid.
- That one belief explains the pyramids, the mummies and much of what we know about them.
- Later pharaohs were buried in hidden rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings, because robbers could easily find the pyramids.
- Cleopatra lived closer in time to the first Moon landing than to the building of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pyramid» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.