renewable
part of speech
adjective; noun (renewables — plural, renewable energy sources)
meaning for a pupil
1) Renewable describes energy or a resource that is not used up because nature replaces it, like sunlight, wind and moving water. tree →
2) Renewable describes something, like a library card or a contract, that can be made to last longer by renewing it. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and geography, renewable energy sources are solar (sunlight), wind, hydro (moving water), tidal, wave, geothermal (heat from the Earth) and biomass (wood, plants); non-renewable sources like coal, oil and gas take millions of years to form and will run out, and burning them adds to climate change. Countries like New Zealand get much of their electricity from renewables. Phrases: «renewable energy», «renewable resources», «non-renewable», «renewables».
examples
- Wind and sunlight are renewable energy sources. tree →
- Coal is not renewable; one day it will run out. tree →
- Solar panels turn renewable energy into electricity. tree →
- Wood can be renewable if new trees are planted. tree →
- New Zealand makes lots of electricity from renewable hydro power. tree →
- Renewable energy causes less pollution. tree →
- My library card is renewable each year. tree →
- Wind farms produce renewable electricity. tree →
note
Opposite: non-renewable. Verb: renew. Spelling: renew + able, no extra e. «Renewable» does not always mean «harmless»: making solar panels and dams still affects nature, though much less than burning coal.
In the corpora
- Wind, sunshine and flowing water keep coming back, so they are called renewable.
- Renewable resources, such as sunlight, wind and flowing water, are not used up.
- Sunlight, wind, flowing water and the heat inside the Earth will not run out — they are renewable.
- Sun, wind, flowing water and heat from inside the Earth are renewable energy sources.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «renewable» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.