probe

«probe» in Mova's school dictionary: a spacecraft with no people in it, sent to explore… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a probe, probes); verb (probe, probes, probed, probing)

meaning for a pupil

1) A space probe is a spacecraft with no people in it, sent to explore planets and space. tree →

2) A probe is a thin tool used to examine or measure something, for example a temperature probe. tree →

3) To probe means to look into something carefully or ask lots of questions to find out the truth. tree →

4) To probe can also mean to push a tool or finger into something to explore it. tree →

sense in the lessons

Science and space: probes have flown past every planet in our solar system and sent back photos. In science practicals: a temperature probe connected to a computer records readings. In stories and news: police or reporters probe a mystery. Phrases: space probe, a probe into, probe deeper, temperature probe.

examples

• A space probe sent back pictures of Saturn's rings. tree →
• We used a temperature probe in the science lesson. tree →
• The dentist probed my tooth gently. tree →
• Detectives probed the mystery of the missing jewels. tree →
• The bird probed the mud with its long beak. tree →
• The probe landed on a comet. tree →

note

Verb past: probed, -ing: probing. «Probing questions» are careful, searching questions. A probe has no astronauts on board — that is a key difference from a crewed spaceship.

In the corpora

• Long legs let cranes wade in marshes and tall grass, and a long bill probes the mud for food.
• Japanese probes brought back dust from the asteroids Itokawa and Ryugu, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx returned samples from Bennu in 2023.
• In 2005 the European Huygens probe parachuted onto Titan, the most distant landing ever made.

Trees and pragmatics

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