pattern

«pattern» in Mova's school dictionary: something that repeats in a rule, like red, blue, red… — 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 (pattern, patterns); verb (pattern, patterns, patterned, patterning — rare)

meaning for a pupil

1) A pattern is something that repeats in a rule, like red, blue, red, blue, or 2, 4, 6, 8. tree →

2) A pattern is a design of lines, shapes or colours on cloth, paper or a wall: a pattern of stars. tree →

3) A pattern is a usual way that something happens: sleep patterns, weather patterns. tree →

4) A pattern is also a shape you copy or cut around to make clothes. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths: number patterns, shape patterns, and repeating rules; «find the rule», «what comes next». In science: patterns in data, weather patterns, patterns on animals (stripes, spots). In art: repeating patterns and tessellations. In everyday life: patterns on clothes; in stories, a pattern of clues.

examples

• What is the next number in the pattern 3, 6, 9? tree →
• The pattern is red, red, blue. tree →
• Find the rule of the pattern. tree →
• The pattern adds 5 each time. tree →
• A zebra has a pattern of black and white stripes. tree →
• Her dress has a pattern of little flowers. tree →
• Scientists look for patterns in their results. tree →
• The leaves grow in a spiral pattern. tree →
• The detective saw a pattern in the robberies. tree →
• "What a beautiful pattern, what brilliant colours! tree →

note

Find the rule (add, subtract, multiply) by comparing neighbouring terms, then use it. Trap: check the rule on more than two terms. A repeating pattern has a core that repeats (red, red, blue); a growing pattern changes by a rule. Do not confuse pattern with patent or patron.

In the corpora

• One complaint is not a pattern; get facts before you warn people off a business.
• AI programs learn patterns from very large numbers of examples, such as sentences or photos.
• "Large language model" means a huge program that has learned the patterns of how words are used.
• AI can help doctors spot patterns in scans such as X-rays; doctors still check and decide.
• That is AI at its best: a patient pattern-spotter helping people do something they could not do alone.

Trees and pragmatics

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