compass

«compass» in Mova's school dictionary: An instrument with a magnetic needle that always points… — 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 (a compass, compasses; compasses or a pair of compasses — the drawing tool)

meaning for a pupil

1) An instrument with a magnetic needle that always points north, used to find directions. tree →

2) A tool with two arms, one with a point and one with a pencil, used to draw circles; in British English often called "compasses" or "a pair of compasses". tree →

3) "Compass points" are north, south, east and west. tree →

4) To compass something is to achieve or bring it about, an old-fashioned use. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and outdoor safety, a compass and map help you find your way; the four main points are north, east, south and west, often remembered as "Never Eat Soggy Weetabix" or "Never Eat Shredded Wheat". In science, a compass works because the Earth is like a giant magnet. In maths, you draw circles with compasses and set the arms apart to the radius. Phrases: compass points, compass needle, read a compass, moral compass.

examples

• The compass needle points north. tree →
• We used a map and compass on the hike. tree →
• Set the compasses to 5 centimetres to draw a circle with a radius of 5 cm. tree →
• The four compass points are north, south, east and west. tree →
• Keep magnets away from the compass. tree →
• The sailors steered by compass. tree →
• He has more cleverness than ten thousand men, and he found means to compass his end. tree →

note

Countable: a compass, compasses. In maths, the gap between the compass point and pencil is the radius, so the circle's width (diameter) is twice that. A compass points to magnetic north, which is close to, but not exactly, the North Pole. Safety: compasses for drawing have a sharp point.

In the corpora

• A compass needle points roughly north.
• From the late 1200s, sailors in the Mediterranean used portolan charts, sea maps with coastlines and criss-crossing compass lines.
• Gerardus Mercator published his famous world map in 1569, and on it a straight line is a line of constant compass bearing.
• The Chinese discovered that a magnetised needle points north and later used compasses for sailing.
• Open your pencil case: paper in your notebook, printed words on the cover, maybe a compass on your ruler.

Trees and pragmatics

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