moth

«moth» in Mova's school dictionary: An insect like a butterfly, usually with dull brown or… — 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 (a moth, moths)

meaning for a pupil

1) An insect like a butterfly, usually with dull brown or grey wings, that mostly flies at night and is drawn to lights. tree →

2) A small moth whose young (larvae) eat holes in wool clothes. tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, moths and butterflies are insects with four wings and a life cycle: egg, caterpillar, pupa (cocoon), adult. Most moths fly at night and rest with wings flat; many feed on nectar and are pollinators. Phrases: «like a moth to a flame», «moth-eaten».

examples

• A moth flew around the lamp. tree →
• Moths are attracted to light at night. tree →
• The caterpillar turned into a moth. tree →
• Moths ate holes in Grandpa's wool jumper. tree →
• Some moths are as colourful as butterflies. tree →
• Moths help pollinate flowers at night. tree →
• For they saw at once that it was the great white Arctic moth. tree →

note

Countable: moths. Not «mouth»: one letter different. Myth: moths are not harmful to people; only some larvae eat clothes.

In the corpora

• Green algae grow in sloth fur and give camouflage among leaves, and moths live in the fur too.
• Three-toed sloths come down to the ground about once a week to poo, and algae and moths live in their fur.
• Many moths rest still on trees looking like bark, and when factory soot darkened trees, dark moths survived better than pale ones.
• Only the caterpillars of a few kinds of moth eat wool clothes; most moths never touch clothes at all.
• A moth's caterpillar often makes a silk cocoon before it changes, but a butterfly's caterpillar makes a bare chrysalis.

Trees and pragmatics

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