tetra

«tetra» in Mova's school dictionary: a small, often brightly coloured freshwater fish from… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (a tetra, tetras); also a prefix tetra- meaning four

meaning for a pupil

1) A tetra is a small, often brightly coloured freshwater fish from South America or Africa, popular in home aquariums, such as the neon tetra. tree →

2) Tetra- at the start of a word means four, as in tetrahedron (a solid with four faces) and tetrapod (an animal with four limbs). tree →

sense in the lessons

In everyday life tetras are pet fish kept in tanks. In maths and science the prefix tetra- signals the number four. Phrases: neon tetra, a shoal of tetras, tetrahedron.

examples

• We have six neon tetras in our fish tank. tree →
• Tetras like to swim together in a shoal. tree →
• A tetrahedron is a pyramid with four triangle faces. tree →
• The neon tetra has a shiny blue stripe. tree →
• Frogs, lizards, birds and people are all tetrapods. tree →
• Feed the tetras a small pinch of flakes. tree →
• The pet shop sells tetras, guppies and goldfish. tree →

note

Countable: one tetra, two tetras. In maths, tetra- = 4 (tri- = 3, penta- = 5). Tetra Pak is a brand name for drink cartons, not a fish.

Trees and pragmatics

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