tang
part of speech
noun (a tang, tangs; uncountable for the taste); adjective (tangy); also Tang (a name, Chinese dynasty)
meaning for a pupil
1) A tang is a strong, sharp taste or smell, like lemon or the sea air. tree →
2) A tang is a hint or trace of something: «a tang of autumn in the air». tree →
3) Tang was a great Chinese dynasty, the Tang dynasty, famous for poetry, art and trade (a name). tree →
4) A tang is the part of a knife blade that fits into the handle. tree →
5) (Mandarin, pinyin) «táng» means sugar or sweets, and «tāng» means soup; these are not English words. tree →
sense in the lessons
In cooking and describing food, «tang» and «tangy» praise a sharp, fresh taste: lemon, lime, cheese, yoghurt. In stories, «the salty tang of the sea» helps you smell the setting. In history, the Tang dynasty in China was a golden age of the Silk Road. Phrases: «a salty tang», «a citrus tang», «tangy cheese», «the Tang dynasty».
examples
- The lemonade had a nice sharp tang. tree →
- We smelled the salty tang of the sea as we got out of the car. tree →
- This cheese is tangy. tree →
- There was a tang of smoke in the cold air. tree →
- Poets wrote famous poems during the Tang dynasty. tree →
- The tang of the knife goes into the wooden handle. tree →
- In Mandarin, «tang» with a rising tone means sweets. tree →
- A wind carried me the tang of wolf, and against that smell I stared and stamped. tree →
note
Countable («a tang») or uncountable. Adjective «tangy» is more common in everyday talk. Capital T for the dynasty. Do not confuse with «tank» or «tangle».
In the corpora
- The blue tang has a sharp spine near its tail that it uses like a scalpel for defence.
- A blue tang has a sharp spine like a little knife near its tail that it can flick out to defend itself.
- Golden ages end too: the An Lushan rebellion of 755 shook the Tang so hard that it never fully recovered.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «tang» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.