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# dam

«dam» in Mova's school dictionary: **a strong wall built across a river to hold back the…** — 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 (a dam, dams); verb (dam, dams, dammed, damming)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A dam is a strong wall built across a river to hold back the water, making a lake behind it called a reservoir. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#m1)

2) A dam is also a wall of sticks and mud built by beavers across a stream. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#m2)

3) To dam a river is to build a dam across it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#m3)

4) A dam is also the mother of an animal such as a horse or dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In geography and science, dams store water for drinking and farming, stop floods and make electricity with moving water (hydroelectric power). In nature lessons beavers build dams. Phrases: build a dam, the dam burst, a beaver dam, dam up.

### examples

- The dam holds back millions of litres of water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x1)
- Beavers build dams from sticks and mud. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x2)
- Water rushing through the dam turns turbines to make electricity. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x3)
- After heavy rain, the dam was nearly full. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x4)
- We dammed the little stream with stones. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x5)
- In the story, the dam burst and the village flooded. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x6)
- The lake behind the dam is called a reservoir. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x7)
- "Oh, yes, my bonnie lassie," said the mill-dam. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dam/#x8)

### note

Countable noun: a dam, dams. Verb: dam, dammed, damming (double m). Homophone trap: «damn» (a swear word) sounds the same but has a silent n; do not mix them up.

### In the corpora

- [Dams on rivers, roads, new buildings and the loss of resting places along the way all make migration harder today.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/54-migration-the-great-journeys/17/)
- [Some dams have been repaired for hundreds of years by family after family of beavers, each one fixing the dam it inherited.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/242-animal-builders-beavers-dams-and-lodges/13/)
- [Beaver dams slow floods, clean water and make ponds full of life, though some farmers worry about flooded fields.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/283-wolves-in-yellowstone-beavers-in-britain-and-bringing-nature-back/11/)
- [Nets, electric fishing and dams did the rest, and the giant Chinese paddlefish was lost too.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/379-china-s-great-rivers-the-finless-porpoise-the-lost-baiji-chinese-alligators-and-sturgeon/5/)
- [It may be the first dolphin driven extinct by people, through boats, nets, electric fishing and dams.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/379-china-s-great-rivers-the-finless-porpoise-the-lost-baiji-chinese-alligators-and-sturgeon/13/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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