ground

«ground» in Mova's school dictionary: The surface of the Earth that you stand on — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (ground, grounds); verb (ground, grounds, grounded); also past of grind (grind, ground)

meaning for a pupil

1) The surface of the Earth that you stand on. tree →

2) Soil, earth: "The ground is hard." tree →

3) An area of land used for something: "playground", "sports ground". tree →

4) A reason: "on the grounds that". tree →

5) As a verb, to keep a child at home as punishment or to keep a plane from flying. tree →

6) Past of "grind": "ground coffee". tree →

7) To cover ground means to travel a long way quickly or to make good progress. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, the ground is soil and rock; water soaks into the ground. In safety: the ground can be slippery or hot; in a fire stay close to the ground under the smoke; in an earthquake drop to the ground. Phrases: on the ground, ground floor, playground, underground, stand your ground, gain ground.

examples

• The ball fell to the ground. tree →
• The ground is wet after the rain. tree →
• We play in the playground. tree →
• Crawl along the ground under the smoke. tree →
• Our flat is on the ground floor. tree →
• Seeds grow in the ground. tree →
• He was grounded for a week. tree →
• Mum bought ground pepper. tree →
• “He covers the ground,” said another. tree →

note

"Ground floor" (British) = "first floor" (American). "Ground" as past of "grind" is a different word. Electric "ground" in America = "earth" in Britain.

In the corpora

• Snakes push their bodies against bumps on the ground to move, and pythons still have tiny leg bones left from ancestors with legs.
• New Zealand had no ground-hunting mammals before people came, so birds like the kiwi and kakapo did not need to fly.
• Sifakas are lemurs built for leaping between trees, so on the ground they bounce sideways with their arms up, like dancers.
• Snakes have no outer ears and hear little of sounds in the air, but they feel vibrations through the ground and their jaws.
• Jackrabbits are hares; hares are bigger than rabbits, with longer ears and legs, and live above ground in nests in grass.

Trees and pragmatics

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