top

«top» in Mova's school dictionary: the highest part of something: the top of the hill — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun, adjective, verb (top, tops, topped, topping)

meaning for a pupil

1) The top is the highest part of something: the top of the hill. tree →

2) The top is the upper surface or the lid: the top of the table, a bottle top. tree →

3) A top is a piece of clothing for the upper body, like a T-shirt. tree →

4) A top (spinning top) is a toy that spins on a point. tree →

5) Top means best or highest: the top mark, top speed. tree →

6) To top something is to put something on it, or to be better than it. tree →

7) To top something off means to finish it, often with a final touch. tree →

sense in the lessons

Maths: the highest part (top shelf, top of a hill); tops as clothes counted; the top row of a table; the top number of a fraction is the numerator. Everyday: on top of, from top to bottom, top up (fill up again), toppings on pizza.

examples

• She put 5 books on the top shelf. tree →
• He climbed to the top of the hill in 30 minutes. tree →
• Mia bought 3 tops for 12 dollars each. tree →
• The top layer has 10 cookies. tree →
• The top number of a fraction tells how many parts you have. tree →
• Put the top back on the glue stick. tree →
• She came top of the class in spelling. tree →
• The spinning top wobbled and fell over. tree →
• ‘Top Off,’ said the Cat drily. tree →

note

Countable noun; verb doubles the p: topped. A place word or a thing counted; no operation by itself. Trap: «top up» means add more to fill again. Opposite: bottom.

In the corpora

• On a real head the eyes sit about halfway down, not near the top.
• Whales breathe through a blowhole on top of the head, and the spout is warm wet breath forming a cloud of mist.
• A cow wraps its long rough tongue round grass because it has no top front teeth, only a hard pad.
• A full set of baby teeth, also called milk teeth, has 20 teeth: ten on top and ten on the bottom.
• There is no single ladder of cleverness with humans at the top: each animal is clever in the ways its own life needs.

Trees and pragmatics

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