figure
part of speech
noun (figure, figures); verb (figure, figures, figured, figuring)
meaning for a pupil
1) A figure is a number written as a sign, like 7 or 25. tree →
2) A figure is a shape, like a triangle or a square. tree →
3) A figure is the shape of a person, or a small toy model of a person: an action figure. tree →
4) A figure in a book is a picture or a diagram. tree →
5) To figure out is to find the answer or to understand. tree →
6) To figure in a story means to appear or play a part in it. tree →
sense in the lessons
mostly «action figures», toys counted; «figure out» means find the answer; in maths, plane figures are flat shapes; phrases: «figure out», «action figure», «in figures» (written as digits), «see Figure 2»
examples
- Jerry had 7 action figures. tree →
- He added 2 more figures. tree →
- Can you figure out how many he has now? tree →
- How many more books than figures are on the shelf? tree →
- Write the number in figures: 25. tree →
- A square is a figure with four equal sides. tree →
- I saw a dark figure in the fog. tree →
- Look at Figure 3 on page 10. tree →
- A gigantic pike figures also in the Kalevala. tree →
note
Countable: a figure, figures. A thing counted (toys). «figure out» carries no clue; it only asks for the answer. Trap: «a six-figure number» has 6 digits.
In the corpora
- A bot's friendliness is the same for everyone; "enjoy" is a figure of speech for a bot.
- The Gryphon asks «Shall we try another figure of the Lobster Quadrille?
- "Full-figured" is a polite way to say a woman is fat or large.
- Theo plans team games with drawings: arrows, circles and a stick figure of himself with a cape.
- Only a tiny share of boys who join a football academy young become professionals; the figure often quoted is under 1 in 100.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «figure» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.