bulb
part of speech
noun (a bulb, bulbs)
meaning for a pupil
1) A bulb (light bulb) is the glass part of a lamp that gives out light when electricity flows through it. tree →
2) A bulb is the round underground part of some plants, like tulips, onions and daffodils, from which a new plant grows. tree →
3) A bulb is any round, swollen part, like the bulb of a thermometer. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, a bulb is a component in an electric circuit: it lights only when the circuit is complete; more batteries make it brighter, more bulbs in a line make each dimmer. In nature lessons, bulbs are planted in autumn and flower in spring; they store food for the plant. Phrases: light bulb, energy-saving bulb, LED bulb, a light-bulb moment (a sudden good idea), plant bulbs.
examples
- The bulb lit up when we closed the switch. tree →
- Dad changed the bulb in the kitchen. tree →
- We planted tulip bulbs in the autumn. tree →
- An onion is a bulb. tree →
- The red liquid rose from the bulb of the thermometer. tree →
- I had a light-bulb moment and solved the puzzle. tree →
- The drops penetrated through the snowy covering down into the earth, and touched the flower-bulb, and talked of the bright world above. tree →
note
Countable: one bulb, two bulbs. Never touch a bulb that has just been on; it can be very hot. Let an adult change bulbs, with the power off. In a circuit diagram a bulb is drawn as a circle with a cross inside.
In the corpora
- An onion is a bulb whose layers are swollen leaves storing food for next year's growth.
- Daffodil bulbs are poisonous and have made people sick when mixed up with onions, so bulbs and onions should be kept apart.
- "Not the brightest bulb" (US) means not very clever.
- Light bulbs get hot, so lamps and nightlights are kept away from curtains and other fabric.
- Modern LED bulbs waste much less energy as heat than old bulbs with a glowing wire.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «bulb» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.