above

«above» in Mova's school dictionary: higher than something — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

preposition, adverb (above); adjective (the above)

meaning for a pupil

1) Above means higher than something. The sky is above the ground. tree →

2) Above also means more than a number or level: above 10, above zero, above average. tree →

3) In a book, above means earlier on the page: see the picture above. tree →

4) Above all means most importantly. tree →

5) Above can also mean too proud or too good to do something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths: a position, or more than a number (above 10, above zero); also «the floor above» in a building; with floors or heights you add; on a number line, above zero is positive. In science: temperatures above zero, above sea level. Phrases: above all, above zero, above sea level, above average, the floor above, as shown above.

examples

• The temperature is 5 degrees above zero. tree →
• How many numbers above 20 are in the list? tree →
• She lives 3 floors above Tom. tree →
• The bird flew 12 m above the tree. tree →
• The town is 300 m above sea level. tree →
• Hang the picture above the bed. tree →
• Look at the table above to answer the question. tree →
• Above all, be kind. tree →
• His marks were above average. tree →
• He was above all that sort of thing. tree →

note

Opposite: below. A comparison: «above» means more or higher; with floors or heights you add. Trap: «above 10» does not include 10 itself. Trap: «3 floors above the 2nd floor» is the 5th floor.

In the corpora

• Above them are «royal sources», newspaper columns and online guesses — some right, many wrong, none of them checkable.
• Parental controls can ask for a PIN before films above a chosen age, such as 12 or 13+, will play.
• Five lines give a good range of notes; for notes above or below the staff, short extra lines are added.
• Elephants can swim and use the trunk as a snorkel, keeping only its tip above the water.
• Elephants swim well, using the trunk held above the water like a snorkel.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «above» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.