opening

«opening» in Mova's school dictionary: a gap or hole that something can pass through — 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 (an opening, openings); verb form (open, opens, opened, opening); adjective (the opening scene)

meaning for a pupil

1) An opening is a gap or hole that something can pass through. tree →

2) An opening is the start of something, such as a story, film, game or match. tree →

3) An opening is a chance or a free job or place, such as a job opening. tree →

4) The opening of a shop, bridge or show is the event when it first starts to be used. tree →

5) Opening is the -ing form of open: making something open. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories the opening is the first part that grabs the reader; teachers ask pupils to write a strong opening. In science, animals and plants have openings (a mouth, a pore). In everyday life: opening hours, opening night, an opening ceremony. In chess and sport the opening is the first moves. Phrases: opening hours, opening line, grand opening, opening ceremony, an opening for (a chance).

examples

• The mouse squeezed through a small opening in the fence. tree →
• The opening of the story begins with a storm. tree →
• The shop's opening hours are nine to five. tree →
• The Olympic opening ceremony was full of fireworks. tree →
• There is a job opening at the library. tree →
• She is opening her birthday presents. tree →
• The striker saw an opening and scored. tree →
• Write an opening sentence that makes the reader curious. tree →
• She saw an opening that led into the depths below. tree →

note

Countable: one opening, two openings. As a noun it is the start or a hole; as a verb form it needs be (is opening) or comes after other verbs. Opening hours = the times a place is open. Do not confuse with open (adjective): the door is open, not the door is opening, unless it is moving now.

In the corpora

• Warthogs often use old aardvark burrows and back in tail-first, so their tusks face the opening.
• So the Badger leads them along a long secret tunnel to the edge of the wood and hides the opening behind them.
• A few houseplants do very little to clean the air of a room; opening a window does far more.
• An opening hook, like «It was the worst day of my life», makes the reader want to know more.
• A story mountain shows the usual shape: opening, build-up, problem, resolution and ending.

Trees and pragmatics

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