seismograph

«seismograph» in Mova's school dictionary: A machine that measures and records how much the ground… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (a seismograph, seismographs)

meaning for a pupil

A machine that measures and records how much the ground shakes during an earthquake. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography and science lessons seismographs show earthquakes as zigzag lines on paper or a screen; bigger zigzags mean stronger shaking. Scientists use them to find where an earthquake happened and how strong it was. Phrases: «seismograph reading», «recorded on a seismograph».

examples

• The seismograph drew big zigzag lines during the earthquake. tree →
• Scientists in New Zealand watch seismographs day and night. tree →
• A seismograph can detect earthquakes on the other side of the world. tree →
• We made a model seismograph with a pen and a moving strip of paper. tree →
• The seismograph showed small shakes before the volcano erupted. tree →
• Seismograph records help warn people about tsunamis. tree →

note

Pronounced «SIZE-muh-graf». «Seismo-» means earthquake, «-graph» means writing or drawing. The record is a «seismogram»; the science is «seismology». Earthquake strength is given on the moment magnitude scale; each step up means much more energy (about 32 times more).

Trees and pragmatics

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