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# tic

«tic» in Mova's school dictionary: **a sudden movement or sound that a person makes again and…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a tic, tics)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A tic is a sudden movement or sound that a person makes again and again without meaning to, like blinking, shrugging, sniffing or clearing the throat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#m1)

2) A tic can be a habit in how someone talks or acts, like always saying «like» (a verbal tic). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In health and PSHE lessons, children may learn that tics are common in childhood, often come and go, and can be part of Tourette's syndrome; people with tics cannot simply stop, so they should never be teased or copied. In writing, a «verbal tic» is a habit word. Phrases: «a nervous tic», «a verbal tic», «motor tic».

### examples

- He has a tic that makes him blink a lot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x1)
- Tics are not something you can just stop. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x2)
- My friend with Tourette's has vocal tics. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x3)
- Her verbal tic is saying «basically» all the time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x4)
- The tic gets worse when he is tired or stressed. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x5)
- We never laugh at someone's tic. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/tic/#x6)

### note

Homophone trap: «tic» (a twitch) and «tick» (a ✓ mark, a clock sound, or a small biting creature) sound the same.

### Trees and pragmatics

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