mermaid

«mermaid» in Mova's school dictionary: an imaginary sea creature with the head and body of a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a mermaid, mermaids)

meaning for a pupil

1) A mermaid is an imaginary sea creature with the head and body of a woman and the tail of a fish. tree →

2) A merman is the male version. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories and myths (like «The Little Mermaid» by Hans Christian Andersen), mermaids live under the sea, sing and sometimes lure sailors. Sailors in the past may have mistaken manatees or dugongs for mermaids. Mermaids are not real.

examples

• The mermaid flicked her shiny tail. tree →
• We read «The Little Mermaid» in class. tree →
• Sailors told stories of mermaids singing on rocks. tree →
• She wants a mermaid cake for her birthday. tree →
• A manatee was once mistaken for a mermaid. tree →
• The mermaid swam down to the coral castle. tree →
• “Oh,” cried Wendy, “to see a mermaid!” tree →

note

Countable. «Mer» is an old word for sea. Mermaids are imaginary — there is no scientific evidence for them.

In the corpora

• Some sharks and rays lay eggs in leathery cases called mermaid's purses, while other sharks give birth to live pups.
• Dugongs are sea cows that graze on sea grass, and sailors long ago may have mistaken dugongs and manatees for mermaids.
• It is a mermaid's purse, an egg case that once held a baby shark or ray.

Trees and pragmatics

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