thread
part of speech
noun (thread, threads); verb (thread, threads, threaded, threading)
meaning for a pupil
1) Thread is a long, thin string of cotton, silk or nylon used for sewing. A spool or reel holds a lot of thread. tree →
2) A thread is one line of ideas in a story or talk: «I lost the thread». tree →
3) A thread online is a list of messages about one topic. tree →
4) To thread a needle is to push thread through its hole. tree →
5) To thread beads is to put them on a string. tree →
6) The thread of a screw is the spiral ridge around it. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: a thing measured in length (metres, centimetres, inches) or counted in spools; pieces cut from a long thread (cuts = pieces − 1); thread per button. In everyday life and crafts: sewing on a button, threading beads, embroidery. In stories: the Greek hero Theseus used a thread to find his way out of the maze. Phrases: «a needle and thread», «thread a needle», «hang by a thread» (be in great danger), «lose the thread».
examples
- A spool has 50 metres of thread. tree →
- She cuts the thread into 5 equal pieces. tree →
- Each button needs 20 cm of thread. tree →
- How much thread is left? tree →
- Grandma threaded the needle and sewed on my button. tree →
- We threaded beads onto a string. tree →
- Theseus followed a thread to escape the maze. tree →
- His life was hanging by a thread. tree →
- In Labakan’s box was found—a large needle with some thread! tree →
note
Uncountable for the material («some thread»), countable for pieces («a thread», «threads»). The «ea» says «e»: «thred». Maths: a length to share or cut: equal pieces often mean division; change metres to centimetres first (1 metre is 100 centimetres). Trap: cutting a thread into 5 pieces needs only 4 cuts.
In the corpora
- Dew collects on the cool threads at night and shows how many webs there are, often thousands in a garden in autumn.
- Pull one thread and the whole web moves, like a spider's web when one strand is touched.
- The smell is «the fine filament, the telegraphic current» (a thin thread, like a telegraph wire's signal).
- Mould sends threads deep into soft food, so cutting off the visible spot does not make soft food like strawberries safe.
- The berry's colour molecules have stuck to the threads of the cloth: that is exactly what a dye does.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «thread» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.