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# roundabout

«roundabout» in Mova's school dictionary: **A roundabout (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) is a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a roundabout, roundabouts); adjective (roundabout: indirect)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A roundabout (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) is a circular junction where cars go around a middle island and leave at different roads (in the USA often a «traffic circle» or «rotary»). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#m1)

2) A roundabout in a playground is a round platform that spins while children ride on it (US: merry-go-round). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#m2)

3) A roundabout can be a fairground merry-go-round with horses. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#m3)

4) Roundabout as an adjective means not direct: a roundabout way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

Safety: at a roundabout drivers give way to traffic already on it; pedestrians cross at crossings, not across the roundabout. Playground: hold on tight and don't jump off a spinning roundabout. Maths: a roundabout exit can be described by turns (quarter turn, half turn). Phrases: at the roundabout, take the second exit, a roundabout route.

### examples

- Take the second exit at the roundabout. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x1)
- We spun round and round on the playground roundabout. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x2)
- Hold on tight on the roundabout! [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x3)
- The bus went round the roundabout. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x4)
- She told the story in a roundabout way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x5)
- Cars on the roundabout have right of way. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x6)
- There was a certain town, the road to which was a very roundabout one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/roundabout/#x7)

### note

One word. Countable. Meaning depends on country: in the UK it is mostly the road junction or playground ride; in the USA «merry-go-round». Traffic direction on a roundabout depends on the country: clockwise where people drive on the left, anticlockwise where they drive on the right.

### In the corpora

- [A euphemism is a soft or roundabout word we use instead of a plain word that feels too hard, rude or sad.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/1-death-polite-and-joking/0/)
- [Grown-ups often talk about babies coming in soft, roundabout words instead of plain ones.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/11-pregnancy-and-birth/0/)
- [Being poor can feel embarrassing, so people often talk about it with soft, roundabout words.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/19-money-and-poverty/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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