chlorophyll
part of speech
noun (chlorophyll — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) Chlorophyll is the green substance in plants that soaks up sunlight. tree →
2) Plants use chlorophyll to make their own food from light, water and carbon dioxide. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons chlorophyll explains why leaves are green and how photosynthesis works: chlorophyll captures light energy, and the plant makes sugar and gives off oxygen. In autumn chlorophyll breaks down, so yellow and red colours show in the leaves. Phrases: «green chlorophyll», «chlorophyll in the leaves», «chloroplasts contain chlorophyll».
examples
- Leaves are green because they contain chlorophyll. tree →
- Chlorophyll helps plants catch sunlight. tree →
- Without chlorophyll a plant cannot make its food. tree →
- In autumn the chlorophyll fades and leaves turn orange. tree →
- Chlorophyll is found inside tiny parts called chloroplasts. tree →
- Seaweed also has chlorophyll. tree →
- A plant kept in the dark loses its green colour. tree →
- We tested leaves for chlorophyll in science. tree →
note
Uncountable: no plural. Tricky spelling: chloro-phyll (ch sounds like k, double l at the end): KLOR-o-fill. Not every green thing has chlorophyll, and some plants with red leaves still have it, hidden by other colours. Animals do not have chlorophyll.
In the corpora
- The green stuff in leaves, chlorophyll, is what catches the light.
- The white patches of a variegated leaf have no chlorophyll and make no food, so such plants often grow more slowly.
- A leaf's chlorophyll soaks up red and blue light and sends back green, so the leaf looks green.
- Chlorophyll is the green substance in leaves that catches the energy of light.
- Leaves turn yellow and orange in autumn because the green chlorophyll breaks down.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «chlorophyll» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.