horn

«horn» in Mova's school dictionary: A hard, pointed, often curved growth on the head of some… — 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 (a horn, horns; horn — uncountable as a material)

meaning for a pupil

1) A hard, pointed, often curved growth on the head of some animals, like cows, goats, rhinos and rams. tree →

2) A device in a car, bus or bike that makes a loud warning sound (beep the horn). tree →

3) A brass musical instrument you blow into (French horn); also any simple instrument made from an animal horn. tree →

4) The hard material that horns are made of. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, horns are adaptations for defence and for fighting for mates; rhinos are hunted for their horns, which is why they are endangered. In road safety, a car horn warns of danger — if you hear one, stop and look. In music, the horn is in the brass family of the orchestra. Phrases: honk/beep/sound the horn, the horns of a dilemma, lock horns (argue), blow your own horn (boast), take the bull by the horns (face a problem bravely).

examples

• The goat has two curly horns. tree →
• The driver honked the horn to warn the cyclist. tree →
• Rhinos are in danger because people hunt them for their horns. tree →
• My brother plays the French horn in the school band. tree →
• When you hear a car horn, stop and look around. tree →
• The bull lowered its horns and charged. tree →
• Stop blowing your own horn — let others speak too. tree →
• All had horns growing on their foreheads. tree →

note

Countable: a horn, horns. «Horn» (on animals) is not «antler»: horns stay for life and are not shed; antlers (deer) fall off and grow back each year. Unicorns have one horn — but only in stories.

In the corpora

• Brass players buzz their lips into the mouthpiece; the trumpet, trombone, horn and tuba are brass.
• In the Middle Ages narwhal tusks were sold in Europe as unicorn horns and were worth more than their weight in gold.
• Musk oxen form a ring facing outwards, with calves in the middle, so wolves meet only a wall of horns.
• The African forest buffalo is a smaller, reddish cousin of the savanna buffalo, with swept-back horns that fit dense forest.
• When wolves come, musk oxen stand in a ring with the calves in the middle and their horns pointing out.

Trees and pragmatics

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