lighthouse
part of speech
noun (lighthouse, lighthouses)
meaning for a pupil
A lighthouse is a tall tower by the sea with a bright light at the top that flashes to guide ships at night and warn them of rocks. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths: a place in a story; its height, steps or the time between flashes are counted; flashes «every 10 seconds» make a pattern in time. In history and science: each lighthouse has its own pattern of flashes so sailors know which one it is; a lighthouse keeper looked after the light. In stories: a lonely lighthouse on a rocky island. Phrases: lighthouse keeper, lighthouse beam, the lighthouse flashes.
examples
- The lighthouse has 120 steps. tree →
- Its light flashes every 10 seconds. tree →
- The lighthouse is 30 m tall. tree →
- How many flashes in one minute? tree →
- The lighthouse warned the ships away from the rocks. tree →
- We climbed to the top of the lighthouse. tree →
- The lighthouse keeper lived in a little house nearby. tree →
- At night we saw the lighthouse beam sweep across the sea. tree →
- Strong hands grasped the oars, and by and by all were safe in the lighthouse. tree →
note
One word: light + house. Countable. A story place; steps, height or flashes may be counted. Trap: flashes «every 10 seconds» in a minute starting at 0 gives 7, not 6.
In the corpora
- They argued about the lighthouse for twenty minutes.
- It is like a moth flying across a distant lighthouse: you cannot see the moth, but the light flickers.
- Each lighthouse flashes its own pattern, so sailors know which one they are seeing; British lighthouses now run automatically, without keepers.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «lighthouse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.