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# hint

«hint» in Mova's school dictionary: **a small clue or piece of help that shows you how to solve…** — 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 hint, hints); verb (hint, hints, hinted, hinting)

### meaning for a pupil

1) noun: A hint is a small clue or piece of help that shows you how to solve something without giving the full answer. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#m1)

2) noun: A hint is a useful tip or piece of advice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#m2)

3) noun: A hint of something is a very small amount of it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#m3)

4) verb: To hint means to say something in an indirect way instead of saying it plainly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths and puzzles: "Hint: start by finding the total." In stories: characters drop hints about a secret. In cooking: a hint of lemon. Phrases: give a hint, drop a hint, take the hint, a hint of, helpful hints.

### examples

- Can you give me a hint for this riddle? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x1)
- Hint: draw a picture to help you. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x2)
- There is a hint of mint in this tea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x3)
- Mum hinted that we might get a puppy. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x4)
- He didn't take the hint and stayed too long. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x5)
- The cookbook has helpful hints for beginners. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x6)
- The sky had a hint of pink at sunset. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x7)
- These were denied, but the mask gave him a hint. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/H/hint/#x8)

### note

Countable. "Hint at" something = suggest it without saying it directly. "Take the hint" = understand what someone is hinting. In maths a hint shows a first step; you still have to do the working.

### In the corpora

- [«I'm not saying anything, but…» is still saying something; it hints at a story without any facts.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/41-our-street-who-parked-where-and-who-won-what/19/)
- [Since then scientists make sure the person testing an animal does not know the answer, so nobody can give hints by accident.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/389-how-scientists-test-animal-minds-the-mirror-test-puzzle-boxes-and-clever-hans/4/)
- [Today the person testing an animal often does not know the answer, so they cannot give hints by accident.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/389-how-scientists-test-animal-minds-the-mirror-test-puzzle-boxes-and-clever-hans/13/)
- [A clue is a detail in the text, like an action or a description, that hints at something.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/18-inference-reading-between-the-lines/14/)
- [Starting in the middle of the action means the reader is hooked first and learns the background later through small hints.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/english/40-openings-that-hook-the-reader/9/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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