wheel
part of speech
noun (wheel, wheels); verb (wheel, wheels, wheeled, wheeling)
meaning for a pupil
1) A wheel is a round thing that turns on a rod so a car, bike or cart can move. tree →
2) A steering wheel is the wheel a driver turns. tree →
3) To wheel something is to push it along on wheels. tree →
4) A wheel is also any turning round part, like a Ferris wheel or a water wheel. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: wheels counted per vehicle (bicycle 2, tricycle 3, car 4); wheel puzzles; turns of a wheel and distance. In science: the wheel and axle is a simple machine; the wheel is one of the oldest inventions. In everyday life: a flat tyre on a wheel, a wheelchair, a Ferris wheel. Phrases: «behind the wheel» (driving), «on wheels», «reinvent the wheel».
examples
- A car has 4 wheels. tree →
- There are 5 bikes and 2 cars. How many wheels? tree →
- A tricycle has 3 wheels. tree →
- The wheel turns 10 times a minute. tree →
- She wheeled her bike into the shed. tree →
- Mum is behind the wheel today. tree →
- We rode the big wheel at the fair. tree →
- The invention of the wheel changed how people moved goods. tree →
note
Countable: «a wheel», «wheels». Maths: a bicycle has 2 wheels, a tricycle has 3 wheels, a car has 4 wheels. Wheels per vehicle hide a rate; multiply and add. Trap: the problem may not say how many wheels each has — you must know it.
In the corpora
- The caravan was «shining with newness, painted a canary-yellow picked out with green, and red wheels».
- With half a turn of the wheel it crashes through a hedge into a muddy horse-pond.
- Read it aloud and the quick beat sounds like wheels rushing on rails.
- A trolley, a cart or wheels can move heavy things without lifting them.
- A hamster wheel must be big enough for its back to stay straight, or it can hurt its spine.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «wheel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.