steepness

«steepness» in Mova's school dictionary: how steep something is: how sharply a slope, hill, road… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (steepness — uncountable)

meaning for a pupil

1) Steepness is how steep something is: how sharply a slope, hill, road or roof goes up or down. tree →

2) (maths) In maths the steepness of a line is measured by its gradient or slope: how far it goes up for every step across. tree →

sense in the lessons

In geography it describes hills and mountains (steepness is shown by contour lines that are close together on a map). In science, a ramp's steepness changes how fast a toy car rolls. In maths a steeper line on a graph shows something changing faster. Phrases: the steepness of the hill, the steepness of the slope.

examples

• The steepness of the hill made us get off our bikes and push. tree →
• On a map, close contour lines show great steepness. tree →
• We changed the steepness of the ramp and timed the car. tree →
• The steepness of the roof lets snow slide off. tree →
• The steepness of the line on the graph shows how fast the plant grew. tree →
• Grandad was worried about the steepness of the steps. tree →

note

Uncountable: no «a», no plural. From steep + -ness. In maths: gradient = rise ÷ run (how far up ÷ how far across); a bigger number means a steeper line. A steeper slope is harder to climb but quicker to roll down.

Trees and pragmatics

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