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# reef

«reef» in Mova's school dictionary: **a long ridge of rock, sand or coral just under or at the…** — 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 reef, reefs); verb (reef, reefs, reefed, reefing — sailing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A reef is a long ridge of rock, sand or coral just under or at the surface of the sea. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#m1)

2) A coral reef is built over many years by tiny sea animals called corals and is home to huge numbers of fish and other sea creatures. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#m2)

3) (sailing) To reef a sail means to roll or tie up part of it to make it smaller in strong wind. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and geography lessons reefs come up in ocean habitats and climate: the Great Barrier Reef off Australia is the largest coral reef system in the world and can be seen from space; warmer, more acidic seas can cause «coral bleaching», when corals turn white and may die. In stories, ships wreck on hidden reefs. In safety lessons, swimmers learn that reefs can be sharp and waves break hard over them.

### examples

- The Great Barrier Reef is off the coast of Queensland, Australia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x1)
- Clownfish hide in the anemones on the reef. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x2)
- The ship hit a reef and sank. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x3)
- Coral reefs are full of colourful fish. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x4)
- Warm water can make the reef turn white. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x5)
- Divers must not touch or break the coral reef. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x6)
- The sailors reefed the sails as the storm grew stronger. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/reef/#x7)

### note

Plural «reefs» (not «reeves»). Countable: «a reef». Coral is made by animals, not plants, though it looks like rock or plants. Do not confuse with «wreath» (a ring of flowers) or «reek» (a bad smell).

### In the corpora

- [The Great Barrier Reef off Australia is about 2,300 km long and is the largest structure built by living things.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/9-coral-reefs-rockpools-and-the-seashore/8/)
- [Coral reefs cover less than 1 per cent of the ocean floor but are home to about a quarter of all sea fish species.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/4/)
- [The Great Barrier Reef off Australia is the largest coral reef system on Earth, made of thousands of separate reefs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/172-coral-reef-builders-polyps-bleaching-sand-from-parrotfish-and-giant-clams/11/)
- [Many young reef fish grow up safely among mangrove roots, so where mangroves are cut down, some reefs have fewer fish.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/178-mangroves-trees-in-salt-water-mudskippers-archerfish-and-swimming-tigers/13/)
- [Scientists breed tougher corals and plant them back on damaged reefs.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/297-the-future-of-life-de-extinction-climate-coral-and-frozen-zoos/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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