hint
part of speech
noun (a hint, hints); verb (hint, hints, hinted, hinting)
meaning for a pupil
1) noun: A hint is a small clue or piece of help that shows you how to solve something without giving the full answer. tree →
2) noun: A hint is a useful tip or piece of advice. tree →
3) noun: A hint of something is a very small amount of it. tree →
4) verb: To hint means to say something in an indirect way instead of saying it plainly. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths and puzzles: "Hint: start by finding the total." In stories: characters drop hints about a secret. In cooking: a hint of lemon. Phrases: give a hint, drop a hint, take the hint, a hint of, helpful hints.
examples
- Can you give me a hint for this riddle? tree →
- Hint: draw a picture to help you. tree →
- There is a hint of mint in this tea. tree →
- Mum hinted that we might get a puppy. tree →
- He didn't take the hint and stayed too long. tree →
- The cookbook has helpful hints for beginners. tree →
- The sky had a hint of pink at sunset. tree →
- These were denied, but the mask gave him a hint. tree →
note
Countable. "Hint at" something = suggest it without saying it directly. "Take the hint" = understand what someone is hinting. In maths a hint shows a first step; you still have to do the working.
In the corpora
- «I'm not saying anything, but…» is still saying something; it hints at a story without any facts.
- Since then scientists make sure the person testing an animal does not know the answer, so nobody can give hints by accident.
- Today the person testing an animal often does not know the answer, so they cannot give hints by accident.
- A clue is a detail in the text, like an action or a description, that hints at something.
- Starting in the middle of the action means the reader is hooked first and learns the background later through small hints.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «hint» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.