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# arc

«arc» in Mova's school dictionary: **part of the curved line of a circle, or any curved line…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (an arc, arcs); verb (arc, arcs, arced, arcing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) An arc is part of the curved line of a circle, or any curved line shaped like this. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#m1)

2) To arc is to move in a curve: the ball arced through the air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#m2)

3) A story arc is the shape a story or a character's change follows from beginning to end. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#m3)

4) (science) An electric arc is a bright spark that jumps across a gap. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths lessons on circles, an arc is part of the circumference; pupils draw arcs with compasses to construct triangles, and learn related words (radius, diameter, chord, sector). In PE and science, a thrown ball travels in an arc. In English, «story arc» or «character arc» describes how events or a character change. Phrases: «draw an arc», «arc of a circle», «in an arc», «story arc», «rainbow arc».

### examples

- Use a compass to draw an arc. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x1)
- An arc is part of the edge of a circle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x2)
- The ball arced high over the goalkeeper's head. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x3)
- A rainbow is an arc of colours. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x4)
- The hero's character arc goes from scared to brave. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x5)
- The welder's arc was so bright we could not look at it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/#x6)

### note

Use «an»: «an arc». Homophone trap: «arc» (curve) and «ark» (Noah's boat) sound the same. Maths: the arc length of a full circle is the circumference; half the circle gives half the length. Do not confuse an arc with an arch (a curved structure like a doorway).

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «arc» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/A/arc/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.