periodically
part of speech
adverb (periodically)
meaning for a pupil
1) Periodically means happening again and again, from time to time. tree →
2) It can mean happening at regular times, like every week or every year. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science it describes things that repeat, like checking a plant or the Moon's phases; in everyday life and safety it says how often to check things, like smoke alarms. In maths it hints at a pattern that repeats. Phrases: checked periodically, update periodically.
examples
- Check the smoke alarm periodically. tree →
- We measured the plant periodically to see it grow. tree →
- The comet returns periodically. tree →
- Dad periodically clears out the garage. tree →
- The teacher periodically reminded us to save our work. tree →
- Water the seeds periodically, not every minute. tree →
- The computer updates itself periodically. tree →
note
An adverb from «periodic» and «period». Note «-ically» (periodically, not «periodicly»). It does not always say exactly how often; if a problem says «every 3 days», use that number.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «periodically» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.