archaic |
1. n. (archaeology, US, usually capitalized) A general term for the prehistoric period intermediate between the earliest period (‘’, ‘Paleo-American’, ‘American‐paleolithic’, &c.) of human presence in the W | |
2. n. (paleoanthropology) (A member of) an archaic variety of Homo sapiens. | |
3. adj. Of or characterized by antiquity; old-fashioned, quaint, antiquated. | |
4. adj. (of words) No longer in ordinary use, though still used occasionally to give a sense of antiquity. | |
5. adj. (archaeology) Belonging to the archaic period | |
transitive |
1. adj. Making a transit or passage. | |
2. adj. Affected by transference of signification. | |
3. adj. (grammar, of a verb) Taking an object or objects. | |
The English verb "to notice" is a transitive verb, because we say things like "She noticeda problem". | |
4. adj. (set theory, of a relation on a set) Having the property that if an element x is related to y and y is related to z, then x is necessarily related to z. | |
"Is an ancestor of" is a transitive relation: if Alice is an ancestor of Bob, and Bob is an ancestor of Carol, then Alice is an ancestor of Carol. | |
5. adj. (algebra, of a group action) Such that, for any two elements of the acted-upon set, some group element maps the first to the second. | |
6. adj. (graph theory, of a graph) Such that, for any two vertices there exists an automorphism which maps one to the other. | |
to |
1. part. A particle used for marking the following verb as an infinitive. | |
I want to leave. | |
He asked me what to do. | |
I don’t know how to say it. | |
I have places to go and people to see. | |
2. part. As above, with the verb implied. | |
"Did you visit the museum?" "I wanted to, but it was closed.". | |
If he hasn't read it yet, he ought to. | |
3. part. A particle used to create phrasal verbs. | |
I have to do laundry today. | |
4. prep. Indicating destination: In the direction of, and arriving at. | |
We are walking to the shop. | |
5. prep. Used to indicate purpose. | |
He devoted himself to education. | |
They drank to his health. | |
6. prep. Used to indicate result of action. | |
His face was beaten to a pulp. | |
7. prep. Used after an adjective to indicate its application. | |
similar to ..., relevant to ..., pertinent to ..., I was nice to him, he was cruel to her, I am used to walking. | |
8. prep. (obsolete,) As a. | |
With God to friend (with God as a friend); with The Devil to fiend (with the Devil as a foe); lambs slaughtered to lake (lambs slaughtered as a sacrifice); t | |
9. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate a ratio or comparison. | |
one to one = 1:1 | |
ten to one = 10:1. | |
I have ten dollars to your four. | |
10. prep. (arithmetic) Used to indicate that the preceding term is to be raised to the power of the following value; indicates exponentiation. | |
Three squared or three to the second power is nine. | |
Three to the power of two is nine. | |
Three to the second is nine. | |
11. prep. Used to indicate the indirect object. | |
I gave the book to him. | |
12. prep. (time) Preceding. | |
ten to ten = 9:50; We're going to leave at ten to (the hour). | |
13. prep. Used to describe what something consists of or contains. | |
Anyone could do this job; there's nothing to it. | |
There's a lot of sense to what he says. | |
14. prep. (Canada, UK, Newfoundland, West Midlands) At. | |
Stay where you're to and I'll come find you, b'y. | |
15. adv. Toward a closed, touching or engaging position. | |
Please push the door to. | |
16. adv. (nautical) Into the wind. | |
17. adv. misspelling of too | |
instruct |
1. v. To teach by giving instructions. | |
Listen carefully when someone instructs you how to assemble the furniture. | |
2. v. To tell (someone) what they must or should do. | |
Usage note: "instruct" is less forceful than "order", but weightier than "advise". | |
The doctor instructed me to keep my arm immobilised and begin physiotherapy. | |
3. n. (obsolete) Instruction. | |
4. adj. (obsolete) Arranged; furnished; provided. | |
5. adj. (obsolete) Instructed; taught; enlightened. | |
train |
1. n. Elongated portion. | |
2. n. The elongated back portion of a dress or skirt (or an ornamental piece of material added to similar effect), which drags along the ground. | |
Unfortunately, the leading bridesmaid stepped on the bride's train as they were walking down the aisle. | |
3. n. A trail or line of something, especially gunpowder. | |
4. n. The tail of a bird. | |
5. n. (astronomy) A transient trail of glowing ions behind a large meteor as it falls through the atmosphere. | |
6. n. (now rare) An animal's trail or track. | |
7. n. Connected sequence of people or things. | |
8. n. A group of people following an important figure, king etc.; a retinue, a group of retainers. | |
9. n. A group of animals, vehicles, or people that follow one another in a line, such as a wagon train; a caravan or procession. | |
Our party formed a train at the funeral parlor before departing for the burial. | |
10. n. A sequence of events or ideas which are interconnected; a course or procedure of something. | |
11. n. (military) The men and vehicles following an army, which carry artillery and other equipment for battle or siege. | |
12. n. A set of interconnected mechanical parts which operate each other in sequence. | |
13. n. A series of electrical pulses. | |
14. n. A series of specified vehicles, originally tramcars in a mine, and later especially railway carriages, coupled together. | |
15. n. A line of connected railway cars or carriages considered overall as a mode of transport; (as unnoun) rail travel. | |
The train will pull in at midday. | |
16. n. A long, heavy sleigh used in Canada for the transportation of merchandise, wood, etc. | |
17. n. (computing) A software release schedule. | |
18. n. (sex, slang) An act wherein series of men line up and then penetrate a person, especially as a form of gang rape. | |
19. v. (intransitive) To practice an ability. | |
She trained seven hours a day to prepare for the Olympics. | |
20. v. To teach and form by practice; to educate; to exercise with discipline. | |
You can't train a pig to write poetry. | |
21. v. (intransitive) To improve one's fitness. | |
I trained with weights all winter. | |
22. v. To proceed in sequence. | |
23. v. To move (a gun) laterally so that it points in a different direction. | |
The assassin had trained his gun on the minister. | |
24. v. (transitive, horticulture) To encourage (a plant or branch) to grow in a particular direction or shape, usually by pruning and bending. | |
The vine had been trained over the pergola. | |
25. v. (mining) To trace (a lode or any mineral appearance) to its head. | |
26. v. (transitive, video games) To create a trainer for; to apply cheats to (a game). | |
27. v. (obsolete) To draw along; to trail; to drag. | |
28. v. (obsolete) To draw by persuasion, artifice, or the like; to attract by stratagem; to entice; to allure. | |
29. n. (obsolete) Treachery; deceit. | |
30. n. (obsolete) A trick or stratagem. | |
31. n. (obsolete) A trap for animals; a snare. | |
32. n. (obsolete) A lure; a decoy. | |
usually |
1. adv. Most of the time; less than always, but more than occasionally. | |
Except for one or two days a year, he usually walks to work. | |
2. adv. Under normal conditions. | |
in |
1. prep. Used to indicate location, inclusion, or position within spatial, temporal or other limits. | |
2. prep. Contained by. | |
The dog is in the kennel. | |
3. prep. Within. | |
4. prep. Surrounded by. | |
We are in the enemy camp. Her plane is in the air. | |
5. prep. Part of; a member of. | |
One in a million. She's in band and orchestra. | |
6. prep. Pertaining to; with regard to. | |
What grade did he get in English? | |
Military letters should be formal in tone, but not stilted. | |
7. prep. At the end of a period of time. | |
They said they would call us in a week. | |
8. prep. Within a certain elapsed time | |
Are you able to finish this in three hours? The massacre resulted in over 1000 deaths in three hours. | |
9. prep. During (said of periods of time). | |
in the first week of December; Easter falls in the fourth lunar month; The country reached a high level of prosperity in his fi | |
10. prep. (grammar, phonetics, of sounds and letters) Coming at the end of a word. | |
English nouns in -ce form their plurals in -s. | |
11. prep. Into. | |
Less water gets in your boots this way. | |
12. prep. Used to indicate limit, qualification, condition, or circumstance. | |
In replacing the faucet washers, he felt he was making his contribution to the environment. | |
13. prep. Indicating an order or arrangement. | |
My fat rolls around in folds. | |
14. prep. Denoting a state of the subject. | |
He stalked away in anger. John is in a coma. | |
15. prep. Indicates, connotatively, a place-like form of someone's (or something's) personality, as his, her or its psychic and physical characteristics. | |
You've got a friend in me. He's met his match in her. | |
16. prep. Wearing (an item of clothing). | |
I glanced over at the pretty girl in the red dress. | |
17. prep. Used to indicate means, medium, format, genre, or instrumentality. | |
18. prep. (of something offered or given in an exchange) In the form of, in the denomination of. | |
Please pay me in cash — preferably in tens and twenties. | |
The deposit can be in any legal tender, even in gold. | |
Her generosity was rewarded in the success of its recipients. | |
19. prep. Used to indicate a language, script, tone, etc. of a text, speech, etc. | |
Beethoven's "Symphony No. 5" in C minor is among his most popular. | |
His speech was in French, but was simultaneously translated into eight languages. | |
When you write in cursive, it's illegible. | |
20. v. (obsolete, transitive) To enclose. | |
21. v. (obsolete, transitive) To take in; to harvest. | |
22. adv. (not comparable) Located indoors, especially at home or the office, or inside something. | |
Is Mr. Smith in? | |
23. adv. Moving to the interior of a defined space, such as a building or room. | |
Suddenly a strange man walked in. | |
24. adv. (sports) Still eligible to play, e.g. able to bat in cricket and baseball. | |
He went for the wild toss but wasn't able to stay in. | |
25. adv. (UK) Abbreviation of in aid of. | |
What's that in? | |
26. adv. After the beginning of something. | |
27. n. A position of power or a way to get it. | |
His parents got him an in with the company | |
28. n. (sport) The state of a batter/batsman who is currently batting – see innings | |
29. n. A re-entrant angle; a nook or corner. | |
30. adj. In fashion; popular. | |
Skirts are in this year. | |
31. adj. Incoming. | |
the in train | |
32. adj. (nautical, of the sails of a vessel) Furled or stowed. | |
33. adj. (legal) With privilege or possession; used to denote a holding, possession, or seisin. | |
in by descent; in by purchase; in of the seisin of her husband | |
34. adj. (cricket) Currently batting. | |
35. n. Inch. | |
matters |
1. n. plural of matter | |
2. v. third-person singular present indicative of matter | |
Nothing really matters. | |
But it matters to me. | |
matter |
1. n. Substance, material. | |
2. n. (physics) The basic structural component of the universe. Matter usually has mass and volume. | |
3. n. (physics) Matter made up of normal particles, not antiparticles. (Non-antimatter matter). | |
4. n. A kind of substance. | |
vegetable matter | |
5. n. Written material (especially in books or magazines). | |
printed matter; He always took some reading matter with him on the plane. | |
6. n. (philosophy) Aristotelian: undeveloped potentiality subject to change and development; formlessness. Matter receives form, and becomes substa | |
7. n. A condition, subject or affair, especially one of concern. | |
What's the matter?; state matters | |
8. n. An approximate amount or extent. | |
I stayed for a matter of months. | |
9. n. (obsolete) The essence; the pith; the embodiment. | |
10. n. (obsolete) Inducing cause or reason, especially of anything disagreeable or distressing. | |
11. n. (dated) Pus. | |
12. v. (intransitive) To be important. | |
The only thing that matters to Jim is being rich. | |
Sorry for pouring ketchup on your clean white shirt! - Oh, don't worry, it does not matter. | |
13. v. (transitive, obsolete outside dialects) To care about, to mind; to find important. | |
14. v. To form pus or matter, as an abscess; to maturate. | |
of |
1. prep. Expressing distance or motion. | |
2. prep. (now obsolete, or dialectal) From (of distance, direction), "off". | |
3. prep. (obsolete except in phrases) Since, from (a given time, earlier state etc.). | |
4. prep. From, away from (a position, number, distance etc.). | |
There are no shops within twenty miles of the cottage. | |
5. prep. (North America, Scotland, Ireland) Before (the hour); to. | |
What's the time? / Nearly a quarter of three. | |
6. prep. Expressing separation. | |
7. prep. (Indicating removal, absence or separation, with the action indicated by a transitive verb and the quality or substance by a grammatical object.) | |
Finally she was relieved of the burden of caring for her sick husband. | |
8. prep. (Indicating removal, absence or separation, with resulting state indicated by an adjective.) | |
He seemed devoid of human feelings. | |
9. prep. (obsolete) (Indicating removal, absence or separation, construed with an intransitive verb.) | |
10. prep. Expressing origin. | |
11. prep. (Indicating an ancestral source or origin of descent.) | |
The word is believed to be of Japanese origin. | |
12. prep. (Indicating a (non-physical) source of action or emotion; introducing a cause, instigation); from, out of, as an expression of. | |
The invention was born of necessity. | |
13. prep. (following an intransitive verb) (Indicates the source or cause of the verb.) | |
It is said that she died of a broken heart. | |
14. prep. (following an adjective) (Indicates the subject or cause of the adjective.) | |
I am tired of all this nonsense. | |
15. prep. Expressing agency. | |
16. prep. (following a passive verb) (Indicates the agent (for most verbs, now usually expressed with by).) | |
I am not particularly enamoured of this idea. | |
17. prep. (Used to introduce the "subjective genitive"; following a noun to form the head of a postmodifying noun phrase) (see also 'Possession' senses below). | |
The contract can be terminated at any time with the agreement of both parties. | |
18. prep. (following an adjective) (Used to indicate the agent of something described by the adjective.) | |
It was very brave of you to speak out like that. | |
19. prep. Expressing composition, substance. | |
20. prep. (after a verb expressing construction, making etc.) (Used to indicate the material or substance used.) | |
Many 'corks' are now actually made of plastic. | |
21. prep. (directly following a noun) (Used to indicate the material of the just-mentioned object.) | |
She wore a dress of silk. | |
22. prep. (Indicating the composition of a given collective or quantitative noun.) | |
What a lot of nonsense! | |
23. prep. (Used to link a given class of things with a specific example of that class.) | |
Welcome to the historic town of Harwich. | |
24. prep. (Links two nouns in near-apposition, with the first qualifying the second); "which is also". | |
I'm not driving this wreck of a car. | |
25. prep. Introducing subject matter. | |
26. prep. (Links an intransitive verb, or a transitive verb and its subject (especially verbs to do with thinking, feeling, expressing etc.), with its subject-ma | |
I'm always thinking of you. | |
27. prep. (following a noun (now chiefly nouns of knowledge, communication etc.)) (Introduces its subject matter); about, concerning. | |
He told us the story of his journey to India. | |
28. prep. (following an adjective) (Introduces its subject matter.) | |
This behaviour is typical of teenagers. | |
29. prep. Having partitive effect. | |
30. prep. (following a number or other quantitive word) (Introduces the whole for which is indicated only the specified part or segment); "from among". | |
Most of these apples are rotten. | |
31. prep. (following a noun) (Indicates a given part.) | |
32. prep. (now archaic, literary, with preceding partitive word assumed, or as a predicate after to be) Some, an amount of, one of. | |
On the whole, they seem to be of the decent sort. | |
33. prep. (Links to a genitive noun or possessive pronoun, with partitive effect (though now often merged with possessive senses, below).) | |
He is a friend of mine. | |
34. prep. Expressing possession. | |
35. prep. Belonging to, existing in, or taking place in a given location, place or time. Compare "origin" senses, above. | |
He was perhaps the most famous scientist of the twentieth century. | |
36. prep. Belonging to (a place) through having title, ownership or control over it. | |
The owner of the nightclub was arrested. | |
37. prep. Belonging to (someone or something) as something they possess or have as a characteristic; (the "possessive genitive". (With abstract nouns, this inter | |
Keep the handle of the saucepan away from the flames. | |
38. prep. Forming the "objective genitive". | |
39. prep. (Follows an agent noun, verbal noun or noun of action.) | |
She had a profound distrust of the police. | |
40. prep. Expressing qualities or characteristics. | |
41. prep. (now archaic, or literary) (Links an adjective with a noun or noun phrase to form a quasi-adverbial qualifier); in respect to, as regards. | |
My companion seemed affable and easy of manner. | |
42. prep. (Indicates a quality or characteristic); "characterized by". | |
Pooh was said to be a bear of very little brain. | |
43. prep. (Indicates quantity, age, price, etc.) | |
We have been paying interest at a rate of 10%. | |
44. prep. (US, informal considered incorrect by some) (Used to link singular indefinite nouns (preceded by the indefinite article) and attributive adjectives mod | |
It's not that big of a deal. | |
45. prep. Expressing a point in time. | |
46. prep. (chiefly regional) During the course of (a set period of time, day of the week etc.), now specifically with implied repetition or regularity. | |
Of an evening, we would often go for a stroll along the river. | |
47. prep. (UK dialectal, chiefly in negative constructions) For (a given length of time). | |
I've not tekken her out of a goodly long while. | |
48. prep. (after a noun) (Indicates duration of a state, activity etc.) | |
After a delay of three hours, the plane finally took off. | |
knowledge |
1. n. The fact of knowing about something; general understanding or familiarity with a subject, place, situation etc. | |
His knowledge of Iceland was limited to what he'd seen on the Travel Channel. | |
2. n. Awareness of a particular fact or situation; a state of having been informed or made aware of something. | |
3. n. Intellectual understanding; the state of appreciating truth or information. | |
Knowledge consists in recognizing the difference between good and bad decisions. | |
4. n. Familiarity or understanding of a particular skill, branch of learning etc. | |
Does your friend have any knowledge of hieroglyphs, perchance? | |
A secretary should have a good knowledge of shorthand. | |
5. n. (philosophical) Justified true belief | |
6. n. (archaic, or legal) Sexual intimacy or intercourse (now usually in phrase carnal knowledge). | |
7. n. (obsolete) Information or intelligence about something; notice. | |
8. n. The total of what is known; all information and products of learning. | |
His library contained the accumulated knowledge of the Greeks and Romans. | |
9. n. Something that can be known; a branch of learning; a piece of information; a science. | |
10. n. (obsolete) Acknowledgement. | |
11. n. (obsolete) Notice, awareness. | |
12. n. (informal) The deep familiarity with certain routes and places of interest required by taxicab drivers working in London, England. | |
13. v. (obsolete) To confess as true; to acknowledge. | |