fungus
part of speech
noun (fungus, fungi or funguses; also uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) A fungus is a living thing such as a mushroom, toadstool, mould or yeast that is neither a plant nor an animal; it feeds on dead or living things. tree →
2) Fungus is a growth of mould on food, walls or skin. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons, fungi are decomposers that break down dead leaves and logs; yeast makes bread rise; mould grows on old bread; some fungi cause athlete's foot. In safety, never eat wild mushrooms — some are deadly poisonous. Phrases: «fungus on the bread», «grow fungus», «fungal infection».
examples
- A mushroom is a kind of fungus. tree →
- Fungi help break down dead leaves on the forest floor. tree →
- There's green fungus on that old bread. tree →
- Yeast is a tiny fungus used to make bread. tree →
- Never pick and eat wild fungi. tree →
- Athlete's foot is caused by a fungus. tree →
- Fungus grew on the damp wall. tree →
- But Iktomi's ears were like the fungus on a tree. tree →
note
Plural: usually «fungi» (said «FUN-gy» or «FUN-ghee»), sometimes «funguses». Adjective: «fungal». Fungi are not plants: they do not make their own food from sunlight. Not a number word.
In the corpora
- Leafcutter ants do not eat the leaves they carry: they chew them to grow a fungus garden underground and eat the fungus.
- Leafcutter ants cut and carry leaves but do not eat them; they grow a fungus on chewed leaf paste and eat the fungus.
- A big leafcutter nest can hold millions of ants, and they have farmed fungus for millions of years, long before people farmed.
- The fungus brings the tree water and minerals, and the tree pays the fungus with sugar made in its leaves.
- Old forests with big trees store huge amounts of carbon and are home to many fungi and creatures.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «fungus» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.