jam

«jam» in Mova's school dictionary: a sweet food made from fruit and sugar that you spread 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 (jam, jams); verb (jam, jams, jammed, jamming)

meaning for a pupil

1) Jam is a sweet food made from fruit and sugar that you spread on bread. tree →

2) A traffic jam is when many cars are stuck and cannot move. tree →

3) To jam is to get stuck or to push something tightly into a space: the door jammed. tree →

4) A jam is a difficult situation: in a jam. tree →

5) To jam is also to play music together freely. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths: jars of jam are counted, weighed or shared; a traffic jam adds time to a trip. In science and cooking: fruit boiled with sugar becomes jam. Everyday life: jam sandwiches, toast and jam. Safety: if a machine or printer jams, ask an adult and turn it off. Phrases: strawberry jam, traffic jam, in a jam, jam-packed, paper jam.

examples

• Mom made 6 jars of jam. tree →
• Each jar holds 250 grams of jam. tree →
• They sat in a traffic jam for 20 minutes. tree →
• She spreads jam on 8 slices of bread. tree →
• I like toast with strawberry jam. tree →
• The printer has a paper jam. tree →
• The drawer jammed and would not open. tree →
• The bus was jam-packed with fans. tree →
• I am in a jam: I forgot my homework. tree →
• “And after the cauliflower, some cake and jam.” tree →

note

Food «jam» is uncountable: some jam, a jar of jam. In the USA «jelly» often means jam; in the UK «jelly» is a wobbly pudding. Jam is the thing counted (jars, spoons, grams). A traffic jam adds extra minutes to the time of a trip.

In the corpora

• Well might the ferrets rush wildly for the fireplace and get hopelessly jammed in the chimney!»
• Maddie felt puzzled and a bit self-conscious; she checked her face for jam.
• Jam is la confiture; préservatif is an embarrassing false friend and does not mean jam.
• A jammed finger should not be pulled hard; one that looks bent or will not straighten needs an X-ray.
• Car engines need oil; without it their metal parts would rub, heat up and seize (jam solid).

Trees and pragmatics

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