growth
part of speech
noun (growth — uncountable; a growth, growths — a lump)
meaning for a pupil
1) Getting bigger, taller or more developed: "a growth spurt". tree →
2) An increase in amount: "population growth". tree →
3) Something that grows, such as new plants or a lump on the skin. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, living things need food, water, light and air for growth; children measure plant growth over weeks. In maths, growth problems show amounts getting bigger over time, often on graphs. In health, children have growth spurts and need sleep and good food. Phrases: growth spurt, plant growth, rapid growth, population growth, new growth.
examples
- Plants need light for growth. tree →
- We measured the bean plant's growth each day. tree →
- He had a growth spurt and grew 5 centimetres. tree →
- Sleep helps your body's growth. tree →
- The graph shows the town's population growth. tree →
- New growth appeared on the tree in spring. tree →
- I am only a little backward, perhaps, in my growth.’ tree →
note
Usually uncountable. Comes from "grow" + "-th". In maths, growth = new amount − old amount: a plant that went from 4 cm to 10 cm grew 6 cm. On a graph, a steeper line means faster growth.
In the corpora
- An onion is a bulb whose layers are swollen leaves storing food for next year's growth.
- A clam from Iceland named Ming lived about five hundred and seven years, worked out by counting the growth rings on its shell.
- A broken growth plate needs a doctor's care, because if it heals badly that bone may grow less.
- "A growth" means a tumour, a lump that may or may not be cancer.
- Economists do the same with bad news: "negative growth" sounds like growing, but it means the economy got smaller.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «growth» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.