constraint

«constraint» in Mova's school dictionary: Something that limits or controls what you can do (time… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a constraint, constraints; constraint uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Something that limits or controls what you can do (time constraints, money constraints). tree →

2) (maths, design) A condition or rule that an answer or design must follow. tree →

3) Holding back your feelings or actions; a lack of freedom. tree →

sense in the lessons

In design and technology, a design brief has constraints: budget, size, materials. In maths, a problem's constraints are the rules the answer must obey (whole numbers only, under 10). In everyday life, families have time and money constraints. It tells the reader there is a limit. Phrases: «time constraints», «under constraint», «budget constraints».

examples

• Because of time constraints, we could only visit one museum. tree →
• The constraint was that the bridge must hold 1 kg. tree →
• Money constraints mean we can't go abroad this year. tree →
• In the puzzle, the constraint is that each number is used once. tree →
• A design brief lists all the constraints. tree →
• He spoke without constraint about his feelings. tree →
• He, however, only laughed at her advice, saying, that his father had always kept him in too great constraint, and that now he rejoiced at his new-found liberty. tree →

note

Countable when meaning a limit: constraints. Verb: constrain. In maths word problems, constraints narrow down the possible answers: e.g. «both numbers are even and add up to 10» rules out 3 + 7.

In the corpora

• Thou didst bring us into the hold; Thou didst lay constraint upon our loins.

Trees and pragmatics

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