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# outnumber

«outnumber» in Mova's school dictionary: **to be more in number** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (outnumber, outnumbers, outnumbered, outnumbering)

### meaning for a pupil

To outnumber means to be more in number. If girls outnumber boys, there are more girls than boys. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: a comparison: one group is bigger than another, often by a given amount (outnumber by 4) or by a ratio (outnumber 3 to 1); bigger = smaller + difference. In stories and history: the army was outnumbered but still won. Phrases: outnumber by, outnumber … to …, be outnumbered.

### examples

- Girls outnumber boys by 4 in the class. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x1)
- Cats outnumber dogs 3 to 1. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x2)
- If there are 12 boys and girls outnumber them by 5, how many girls? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x3)
- The red cars outnumber the blue ones. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x4)
- In our town, bikes outnumber cars. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x5)
- The small team was outnumbered but did not give up. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x6)
- Ants outnumber people by far. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x7)
- At the party adults were outnumbered by children. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x8)
- Jupiter, seeing that Mankind, the only rational creatures, were far outnumbered by the irrational beasts, bade him redress the balance by turning some of the latter into men. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/O/outnumber/#x9)

### note

«Out-» means more than, as in outrun, outgrow. Compares two groups: bigger = smaller + difference. Trap: «outnumber 3 to 1» means 3 times as many, not 3 more. Trap: «A outnumber B» means A is the bigger group.

### Trees and pragmatics

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