mat
part of speech
noun (a mat, mats); adjective (matt — different spelling, means not shiny)
meaning for a pupil
1) A mat is a small piece of material put on the floor, like a doormat or bath mat. tree →
2) A mat is a thick soft piece of material for exercise or gym, like a yoga mat or PE mat. tree →
3) A mat is a small flat piece put under a plate, glass or hot dish to protect a table, like a placemat. tree →
sense in the lessons
In everyday life, «wipe your feet on the mat» before coming in; a bath mat stops you slipping. In PE and safety, gym mats protect you when you fall or tumble. At the table, a placemat or table mat protects the table from hot dishes. In early reading, «The cat sat on the mat» is a famous simple sentence. In maths lessons, children sometimes sit on the carpet or mat for whole-class teaching.
examples
- Wipe your feet on the mat. tree →
- The cat sat on the mat. tree →
- Put the hot pan on a mat, not on the table. tree →
- Lie down on your mat for stretching. tree →
- The bath mat stops you slipping. tree →
- Roll up your yoga mat after class. tree →
- We landed safely on the gym mats. tree →
- The old woman lifted the mat, undid the blanket, and found the girls both dead. tree →
note
Countable: a mat, mats. «Matt» (UK) or «matte» (US) is a different word meaning not shiny (matt paint). «Matted» hair or fur is tangled. «Mat» rhymes with «cat».
In the corpora
- Before an election, leaflets with smiling faces land on the mat: each candidate explains what they promise.
- The Rat digs on and finds a shabby door-mat.
- The Mole: «Can we EAT a doormat? or sleep under a door-mat?
- The Rat's chain: a clean metal cut → a door-scraper → a door-mat → a door.
- Sand, mats and the foam in a helmet soften a blow by letting you stop more slowly.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «mat» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.