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# puzzle

«puzzle» in Mova's school dictionary: **a game or problem you solve by thinking, like a jigsaw…** — 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 (puzzle, puzzles); verb (puzzle, puzzles, puzzled, puzzling)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A puzzle is a game or problem you solve by thinking, like a jigsaw with many pieces, a crossword or a riddle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#m1)

2) A puzzle is something hard to understand: «Where the cat went is a puzzle». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#m2)

3) To puzzle is to make someone wonder or feel confused. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#m3)

4) To puzzle over something is to think hard about it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: things counted: puzzles bought or solved, pieces in a jigsaw puzzle; also a hard question to solve; logic and number puzzles like sudoku. In science: a mystery to solve with tests. In everyday life: jigsaws, crosswords, brain teasers. In stories: «the detective was puzzled by the footprints».

### examples

- A puzzle has 500 pieces. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x1)
- Lily has put together 120 pieces of the puzzle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x2)
- Each puzzle costs $8. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x3)
- He solves 4 puzzles a day. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x4)
- Grandpa does the crossword puzzle every morning. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x5)
- Sudoku is a number puzzle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x6)
- The missing cookies were a puzzle. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x7)
- The strange noise puzzled us. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x8)
- She puzzled over the riddle for an hour. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x9)
- He was quite puzzled when he reached the market-place. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/puzzle/#x10)

### note

Pieces of a puzzle make a total; pieces done and pieces left add up to the whole. Trap: «puzzle» counts whole games, «pieces» counts parts, do not mix them. Spelling: double «z». «Puzzled» means confused; «puzzling» means confusing.

### In the corpora

- [Many puzzling things have a boring reason.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/43-our-street-when-a-guess-becomes-a-reputation/3/)
- [For every puzzle ask three questions: What do the words really mean?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/61-olympiad-what-is-really-going-on/7/)
- [For every puzzle ask: What has to happen first?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/62-olympiad-plans-in-order-and-money-sums/6/)
- [Octopuses can solve puzzles, open jars, learn by watching and remember people; wild ones carry coconut shell halves to hide in.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/39-octopuses-squid-and-cuttlefish/9/)
- [Pigs learn tricks and solve puzzles as well as many dogs, and they can use a mirror to find food hidden behind them.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/6/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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