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# flow

«flow» in Mova's school dictionary: **Of a liquid, gas or electricity: to move along smoothly…** — 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

verb (flow, flows, flowed, flowing); noun (flow — uncountable; a flow)

### meaning for a pupil

1) Of a liquid, gas or electricity: to move along smoothly and steadily in one direction. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#m1)

2) Of people, traffic or ideas: to move or come continuously: «The traffic flowed smoothly». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#m2)

3) Of hair or clothes: to hang down loosely. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#m3)

4) A noun: a steady movement of something: the flow of a river, a flow of air. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#m4)

5) Of speech or writing: to sound smooth and natural. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In science: liquids flow, solids don't (they keep their shape); water flows downhill because of gravity; rivers flow to the sea; electricity flows round a complete circuit; blood flows through veins and arteries; lava flows from volcanoes; flow charts in maths and computing. In safety: fast-flowing rivers are dangerous — never swim in them. Phrases: flow into, flow out, flow downhill, go with the flow, flow chart, blood flow, lava flow, ebb and flow.

### examples

- Rivers flow into the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x1)
- Water flows downhill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x2)
- Liquids can flow, but solids keep their shape. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x3)
- Electricity flows through the wires when the circuit is complete. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x4)
- Don't swim in fast-flowing water. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x5)
- Blood flows around your body. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x6)
- Her long hair flowed down her back. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x7)
- Make a flow chart to show the steps. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x8)
- In and out of it flowed water like attar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/flow/#x9)

### note

Regular verb: flowed. Don't confuse «flowed» (from flow) with «flown» (from fly) or «floor». «Go with the flow» = relax and accept what happens.

### In the corpora

- [Shark skin is covered in tiny tooth-like scales called dermal denticles that help water flow smoothly, and some swimsuits copy them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/28-sharks/14/)
- [The Amazon carries about a fifth of all the river water that flows into the world's seas.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/155-the-amazon-river/14/)
- [An anaconda kills by squeezing until the prey's blood stops flowing, not by crushing bones.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/158-amazon-giants-and-tall-tales/5/)
- [An amoeba moves by flowing its inside forward into a bulge called a false foot, and it swallows food by flowing around it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/256-the-microscopic-world-cells-the-building-blocks-of-life/17/)
- [Ducks' feet stay just above freezing on ice because warm blood flowing in heats the cold blood coming back.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/337-the-park-pond-through-the-year-ducks-coots-swans-dragonflies-and-ice/16/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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