constant
part of speech
adjective (constant); noun (a constant, constants)
meaning for a pupil
1) Constant means happening all the time or again and again: "constant noise". tree →
2) Constant means staying the same, not changing: "drive at a constant speed". tree →
3) (noun) In maths and science, a constant is a number or amount that does not change, like the number of days in a week. tree →
4) (old, literary) Constant means loyal and faithful: "a constant friend". tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths problems, "a constant speed" or "a constant rate" means the same amount every hour, so distance = speed × time. In science experiments, things kept constant are controlled so a test is fair. In stories, constant noise or complaining shows something annoying. Phrases: constant speed, constant temperature, keep constant, a constant reminder.
examples
- The car travelled at a constant speed of 60 kilometres an hour. tree →
- Keep the water temperature constant during the experiment. tree →
- The baby's constant crying kept us awake. tree →
- The dog was his constant companion. tree →
- At a constant rate of 5 pages a day, 30 pages take 6 days. tree →
- In a fair test, everything is constant except one thing. tree →
- The constant rain spoiled the camping trip. tree →
- The wife of the Viking lived in constant pain and sorrow about it. tree →
note
Adverb: constantly (all the time). In maths, "constant" means the amount does not change; in everyday talk it often means "happening a lot" and can sound annoyed. A constant in an expression like 2x + 5 is the number 5.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «constant» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.