aim

«aim» in Mova's school dictionary: trying to do or get; your goal or purpose — 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

noun (an aim, aims); verb (aim, aims, aimed, aiming)

meaning for a pupil

1) What you are trying to do or get; your goal or purpose. tree →

2) To point a ball, an arrow or a camera at something you want to hit or reach. tree →

3) To plan or try to do something (We aim to finish by lunch). tree →

4) To direct words or an action at a particular person or group (The book is aimed at children). tree →

5) Your skill at hitting what you point at (good aim). tree →

sense in the lessons

In school science, every experiment starts with an aim: what we want to find out. In lessons, teachers share the «learning aim» or «learning intention». In sport it is about pointing and throwing. In safety: never aim anything (a stick, a toy gun, a hose, a laser) at someone's face or eyes. Phrases: aim for, aim to, aim at, take aim, the aim of the game, aimed at.

examples

• The aim of this experiment is to find out which material keeps ice frozen longest. tree →
• Aim the ball at the middle of the hoop. tree →
• We aim to raise 200 dollars for the animal shelter. tree →
• The archer took aim and hit the target. tree →
• This show is aimed at young children. tree →
• His aim is to swim a whole length without stopping. tree →
• Never aim a water pistol at someone's eyes. tree →
• Her aim was perfect — she knocked down every can. tree →
• He took aim, and let it fly. tree →

note

«Aim to do» (aim to win) and «aim at/for something» (aim for the goal). «Aim» and «goal» are close; «aim» is often used for the first line of an experiment write-up (Aim, Equipment, Method, Results, Conclusion).

In the corpora

• Food adverts aimed at children have rules about what they can show; a snack does not make a show better.
• Art can aim to be beautiful, but also to shock, ask questions, make people laugh or remember something.
• Aim water guns at the body, not the face, and only at people who are playing too.
• In chess the aim is checkmate, trapping the king, not capturing everything.
• In chess, learn how each piece moves; the aim is checkmate, not capturing everything.

Trees and pragmatics

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