pepper

«pepper» in Mova's school dictionary: A hot-tasting powder made from dried, crushed… — 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 (pepper — uncountable spice; a pepper, peppers — vegetable); verb (pepper, peppers, peppered, peppering)

meaning for a pupil

1) A hot-tasting powder made from dried, crushed peppercorns, used to season food (salt and pepper). tree →

2) A hollow vegetable, red, green, yellow or orange, also called a bell pepper or capsicum (sweet pepper); some small ones are hot (chilli peppers). tree →

3) To put pepper on food. tree →

4) To cover or fill something with many small things (a speech peppered with jokes; peppered with hail). tree →

sense in the lessons

In cooking and everyday life, pepper is a spice on the table next to salt. Peppers are vegetables (botanically fruits, because they hold seeds). In science experiments, the «pepper and soap» trick shows surface tension: pepper floats, and soap makes it rush to the edges. In safety: pepper spray stings eyes; chilli peppers burn — wash hands before touching your eyes. Phrases: salt and pepper, black pepper, red pepper, pepper pot/shaker, peppered with.

examples

• Could you pass the salt and pepper, please? tree →
• Mum sliced a red pepper for the salad. tree →
• Black pepper made me sneeze. tree →
• Wash your hands after cutting chilli peppers before you touch your eyes. tree →
• Sprinkle pepper on water, then touch it with soapy finger — watch it move! tree →
• Her story was peppered with funny jokes. tree →
• In Australia, a bell pepper is called a capsicum. tree →
• She looked out, and the night was peppered with stars. tree →

note

Two meanings: pepper (spice, uncountable: some pepper) and a pepper (vegetable, countable: two peppers). The vegetable is called «capsicum» in Australia and New Zealand, «bell pepper» in the USA and Canada, «pepper» in the UK and Ireland.

In the corpora

• A sneeze is a reflex that blasts air out of the nose and mouth to clear something irritating, like dust or pepper.
• The next witness is the Duchess's cook, carrying her pepper-box, and everyone near the door starts sneezing.
• Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C, so they need fresh vegetables such as pepper or leafy greens every day.
• Today a pepper pot sits on every café table.
• Charlie reads that pepper was worth its weight in gold.

Trees and pragmatics

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