halo

«halo» in Mova's school dictionary: A ring or circle of light drawn around the head of a holy… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a halo, haloes or halos)

meaning for a pupil

1) A ring or circle of light drawn around the head of a holy person or angel in pictures. tree →

2) A ring of light around the Sun or Moon, made by ice crystals in the sky. tree →

3) (informal) Behaviour that makes someone seem perfectly good: «Her halo slipped» = she did something naughty. tree →

4) A halo can also be a glowing ring of light around something other than a head. tree →

sense in the lessons

In church art and Bible pictures saints and angels have haloes. In science a halo round the Moon is caused by light bending in ice crystals in thin clouds. In everyday talk «his halo slipped» is a joke about a good child behaving badly. Phrases: «a halo around the Moon», «halo effect».

examples

• The angel in the painting has a golden halo. tree →
• There was a halo around the Moon last night. tree →
• Ice crystals high in the sky can make a halo around the Sun. tree →
• My little brother acts like he has a halo, but he ate the cake! tree →
• In nativity plays the angels wear tinsel haloes. tree →
• Presently the background of the hall opened and the tree of knowledge appeared, surrounded by a halo of glory that almost blinded him. tree →

note

Plural: haloes or halos — both accepted. Say HAY-lo. Not «hallo» (hello).

In the corpora

• Liking someone a lot can make everything they say sound right; grown-ups call that the halo effect.
• The halo effect is when liking a person makes us believe everything they say.

Trees and pragmatics

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