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# pan

«pan» in Mova's school dictionary: **a metal pot for cooking food, often with a long handle…** — 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 (pan, pans); verb (pan, pans, panned, panning)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A pan is a metal pot for cooking food, often with a long handle, like a frying pan or saucepan. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#m1)

2) A pan is also one of the two dishes of a balance scale. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#m2)

3) A baking pan or tin holds cakes in the oven. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#m3)

4) To pan for gold is to wash river sand in a pan to find gold. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#m4)

5) To pan a film is to say it is very bad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#m5)

### sense in the lessons

In school maths: a kitchen thing counted; cakes or cookies baked in pans («per pan» is a group size); the two pans of a scale. In everyday life: frying eggs in a pan, washing pans after dinner. In history: gold rush miners panned for gold in California, Australia and New Zealand. Phrases: «frying pan», «saucepan», «out of the frying pan into the fire» (from bad to worse).

### examples

- Each pan holds 12 cookies. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x1)
- She bakes 3 pans of muffins. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x2)
- Put 2 weights on the left pan. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x3)
- How many pans are needed for 50 rolls? [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x4)
- Dad fried the eggs in a pan. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x5)
- Careful, the pan is very hot! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x6)
- Miners panned for gold in the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x7)
- Grease the cake pan before you pour in the mix. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x8)
- Out of the frying-pan into the fire. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/pan/#x9)

### note

Countable: «a pan». «Pot» is deeper; «pan» is often wider and flatter. Maths: often «per pan» — a group size, so total = pans × each. Trap: on a scale, both pans must weigh the same when it balances. Safety: turn pan handles away from the edge of the cooker.

### In the corpora

- [The steel pan was developed in Trinidad and Tobago in the 20th century from oil drums and is its national instrument.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/arts/10-instruments-of-the-world-bandura-erhu-sitar-kora-didgeridoo/14/)
- [Pan-pipes are a row of reed pipes of different lengths tied together and blown across the top.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/50-willows-ch7-part2-the-piper/11/)
- [Sugar burns to black carbon in a hot pan; salt does not burn.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/3-molecules-when-atoms-join-up/10/)
- [The big bubbles at the bottom of a pan of boiling water are pockets of water that has turned into gas.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/5-melting-freezing-boiling-condensing/11/)
- [A sieve lets fine flour through and keeps lumps; long ago gold miners used pans and sieves to wash gold from river gravel.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/8-separating-mixtures/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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