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# eldest

«eldest» in Mova's school dictionary: **oldest, used for people in the same family: «my eldest…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (eldest — superlative of old, used for family); noun (the eldest)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Eldest means oldest, used for people in the same family: «my eldest brother». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#m1)

2) The eldest is the oldest child in a family. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In stories and family talk eldest shows age order among brothers and sisters. In maths problems you may compare ages to find the eldest. Phrases: «the eldest son», «my eldest», «eldest of three».

### examples

- Tom is the eldest of four children. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x1)
- My eldest sister is at university. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x2)
- The eldest daughter looked after the little ones. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x3)
- Sara is 12, Ben 9, Mo 7; who is the eldest? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x4)
- In fairy tales the eldest brother often fails first. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x5)
- She's my eldest. (her oldest child) [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x6)
- Well, the eldest son undertook the task. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/eldest/#x7)

### note

Only for family members: «my eldest brother», but «the oldest building». Elder (comparative) is only used before nouns or with «the»: «my elder sister»; you say «older than», never «elder than». Maths: the eldest has the largest age.

### In the corpora

- [At a Hindu funeral the body is usually cremated; traditionally the eldest son leads the rites, though today daughters sometimes do too.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/65-how-other-people-remember-dia-de-los-muertos-qingming-and-more/10/)
- [And David was the youngest; and the three eldest followed Saul. —](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/1SA.465/)
- [And it fell on a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/JOB.13/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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