zebra

«zebra» in Mova's school dictionary: a wild African animal like a horse with black and white… — 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 (zebra, zebras)

meaning for a pupil

1) A zebra is a wild African animal like a horse with black and white stripes. A zebra has 4 legs. tree →

2) A zebra crossing (UK) is a place on a road with black and white stripes where people can cross. tree →

sense in the lessons

animals counted; legs (4 each); in science: zebras eat grass, live in herds on the African plains, and each zebra has its own stripe pattern; lions hunt them; in safety: cross the road at a zebra crossing, look both ways and wait for cars to stop

examples

• The zoo has 6 zebras. tree →
• How many legs do 6 zebras have? tree →
• 3 zebras and 2 lions drink water. tree →
• Each zebra eats 8 kg of grass. tree →
• No two zebras have the same stripes. tree →
• A herd of zebras ran across the plain. tree →
• Cross the road at the zebra crossing. tree →
• Zebras live in Africa and eat grass. tree →

note

Hidden fact: a zebra has 4 legs (6 zebras → 24 legs). Plural: zebras. Pronounced «ZEB-ra» (UK) or «ZEE-bra» (US). A zebra crossing is called a crosswalk in the USA.

In the corpora

• Every zebra has its own stripe pattern, and the best evidence says the stripes help keep biting flies from landing.
• Zebras have black skin, so they are usually described as black with white stripes.
• Zebras defend themselves with powerful kicks and bites that can badly injure a lion, and they have never been tamed like horses.
• Stripes might also confuse a lion trying to pick out one zebra from a running herd, but this is less certain.
• Predators and prey sometimes drink near each other, and zebras watch lions closely but run only if the lions come towards them.

Trees and pragmatics

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