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# big

«big» in Mova's school dictionary: **large in size or amount: a big dog** — 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

adjective (big, bigger, biggest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Big means large in size or amount: a big dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#m1)

2) Big means important or serious: a big day, a big mistake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#m2)

3) Big means older: my big sister. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#m3)

4) Bigger means larger than another; biggest means larger than all the others. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

how large a difference is; the larger of two numbers («subtract the smaller from the bigger one»); in everyday life «big brother», «a big deal», «think big»; in science comparing sizes of animals and planets

### examples

- Here the word «more» does not mean adding: it asks how big the difference is. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x1)
- We always subtract the smaller number from the bigger one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x2)
- A big box holds 24 crayons and a small box holds 8. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x3)
- An elephant is bigger than a horse. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x4)
- Jupiter is the biggest planet. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x5)
- Tomorrow is a big day: the school play! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x6)
- My big brother helps me with homework. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x7)
- Which number is bigger, 45 or 54? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x8)
- "Was he as big as this?" [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/big/#x9)

### note

In subtraction start from the bigger number and take the smaller one away. Trap: a «big box» describes size, not an operation. Spelling: double g in bigger, biggest. Opposite: small, little.

### In the corpora

- [Rent is often a family's biggest bill, so when it goes up, other spending has to shrink.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/6-paying-for-a-home-and-the-bills/9/)
- [Own-brand food is often made in a similar way to famous brands but costs less because there is no big advertising.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/9-when-money-is-tight/14/)
- [A mortgage is a very big bank loan to buy a house, paid back monthly for 25 years or more with interest.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/10-moving-house-and-renting-a-home/16/)
- [Big building jobs often take longer and cost more than planned.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/11-when-things-break/10/)
- [A big family brings warmth and noise, and also old quarrels.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/17-gran-cousins-and-the-whole-family/1/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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