decompose
part of speech
verb (decompose, decomposes, decomposed, decomposing)
meaning for a pupil
1) To rot or break down slowly, as dead plants and animals do, with help from bacteria, fungi and small creatures. tree →
2) (science) To break a substance into simpler parts or chemicals. tree →
3) (maths) To break a number or shape into smaller parts to make it easier to work with, such as 47 = 40 + 7. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons, decomposers like worms, fungi and bacteria make dead things decompose into soil; compost heaps work this way. In maths, children «decompose numbers» (partition them) to add, subtract and multiply: 36 × 4 = 30 × 4 + 6 × 4. Phrases: «decompose into», «fully decomposed», «decompose a number».
examples
- Leaves decompose and turn into soil. tree →
- Fungi help dead logs decompose. tree →
- A banana peel decomposes faster than a plastic bag. tree →
- Decompose 58 into 50 and 8 to add it more easily. tree →
- Plastic can take hundreds of years to decompose. tree →
- Heat can decompose some chemicals into gases. tree →
- We watched apples decompose in jars for our experiment. tree →
note
Noun: «decomposition»; living things that do this are «decomposers». Trap: «biodegradable» things decompose naturally, but not all «green-looking» packaging does. In maths, decomposing a number does not change its value: 47 is still 47 whether written 40 + 7 or 30 + 17.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «decompose» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.