downwards

«downwards» in Mova's school dictionary: towards a lower place or position — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adverb (downwards; also downward); adjective (downward)

meaning for a pupil

1) Downwards means towards a lower place or position. tree →

2) Downwards means going to a smaller number or amount. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths, a graph may slope downwards when a number gets smaller; counting downwards goes from bigger to smaller. In science, gravity pulls things downwards. In PE and art, pupils point or draw downwards. Phrases: face downwards, slope downwards, from ... downwards.

examples

• The ball rolled downwards to the bottom of the hill. tree →
• Gravity pulls things downwards. tree →
• Point your fingers downwards. tree →
• The line on the graph goes downwards. tree →
• The road slopes downwards to the river. tree →
• Lay the card face downwards. tree →
• Everyone from age 10 downwards gets in free. tree →
• The summit of the tree waved to and fro, and bent downwards as if in his silent longing he sought for something. tree →

note

Downwards is more common in British English; downward is more common in American English as an adverb. Before a noun use downward: a downward slope. Opposite: upwards. In maths, a downward trend means the numbers are getting smaller.

In the corpora

• A rocket throws hot gas out downwards and the gas pushes the rocket up; it does not need air to push against.
• Gravity is the pull of the Earth that makes things fall downwards.
• A plane's wings push air downwards, and the air pushes the plane upwards; this is called lift.

Trees and pragmatics

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