mean

«mean» in Mova's school dictionary: to have a sense: What does this word mean? — 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

verb (mean, means, meant, meaning); adjective (mean, meaner, meanest); noun (the mean — average)

meaning for a pupil

1) To mean is to have a sense: What does this word mean? tree →

2) To mean is to want to say: I mean the red one. tree →

3) To mean to do something is to plan it: I didn't mean to break it. tree →

4) Mean (adjective) means unkind: Don't be mean. tree →

5) In maths, the mean is the average: add the numbers and divide by how many there are. tree →

6) Means, in the plural, is money or wealth, so a man of means is a rich man. tree →

sense in the lessons

what a word stands for in the operation («Coming together means adding»); a word's meaning can change with the words around it; in maths the mean (average); in everyday life «I didn't mean it», «mean» as unkind; in friendship and safety: tell an adult if someone is mean to you again and again

examples

• Coming together means adding; going away means subtracting. tree →
• Here the word «more» does not mean adding … tree →
• «Half» means one of two equal parts. tree →
• What does «huge» mean? tree →
• Sorry, I didn't mean to bump you. tree →
• It's mean to laugh at someone who falls. tree →
• A red light means stop. tree →
• The mean of 2, 4 and 6 is 4. tree →
• He was a man of means. tree →

note

A word's meaning can change with the words around it. Past «meant» (say «ment»). Noun «meaning». Trap: «mean» as unkind and «the mean» as average are different words with the same spelling.

In the corpora

• Night shifts mean working through the night and sleeping in the day; nurses, drivers, bakers and warehouse workers often do them.
• Job hunting means searching adverts and sending applications, often dozens before getting anywhere; many get no reply at all.
• Retiring means stopping paid work for good, usually in your sixties, and living on a pension and savings.
• Starting a new job means learning new systems, names and rules all at once, so people come home tired.
• Burnout means being worn down by too much work and stress for too long, until even small tasks feel huge.

Trees and pragmatics

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