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# scatter

«scatter» in Mova's school dictionary: **to throw or drop things so they land in many different…** — 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

verb (scatter, scatters, scattered, scattering); noun (a scatter)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To scatter is to throw or drop things so they land in many different places. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#m1)

2) To scatter is also for people or animals to run away quickly in different directions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#m2)

3) A scatter is a small number of things spread out over an area. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In science and gardening, you scatter seeds on soil. In maths, a scatter graph (scatter plot) shows dots spread over a chart to see if two things are linked. In stories, birds or people «scatter» when something frightens them. Phrases: «scatter seeds», «scattered showers», «scatter graph», «scatter cushions».

### examples

- The farmer scattered seeds across the field. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x1)
- The pigeons scattered when the dog ran at them. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x2)
- My toys were scattered all over the floor. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x3)
- The children scattered when the rain started. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x4)
- Scatter some cheese on top of the pizza. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x5)
- The weather report said there would be scattered showers. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x6)
- We made a scatter graph of height and shoe size. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x7)
- There was a scatter of stars in the dark sky. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x8)
- Fresh roses were scattered over her. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/scatter/#x9)

### note

Past form: scattered (double t stays, add -ed). «Scattered showers» in a weather report means rain in some places, not everywhere. A scatter graph in maths has points, not bars or lines.

### In the corpora

- [Scattering food in the grass makes gorillas walk and search, which is called foraging, and keeps them busy for longer.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/111-feeding-times-and-the-zoo-kitchen/11/)
- [Calm, slow handling keeps sheep less stressed; stressed sheep scatter and can hurt themselves.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/144-babe-real-pigs-sheep-and-sheepdogs/11/)
- [Polar bear skin is black and its fur is made of see-through hollow hairs that look white because they scatter light.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/169-the-arctic-ocean-walruses-bowheads-the-400-year-shark-and-the-unicorns-tooth/10/)
- [Veins look blue through the skin because of the way skin lets through and scatters light.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/chemistry/28-colour-in-nature/17/)
- [Blood is always red: bright red with oxygen and darker red without; veins look blue because of the way skin scatters light.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/6-growing-skin-hair-and-food/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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