Wordcyclopedia | English | A Short History of Nearly Everything

a Determinative

— A is used when the following word could be any of a certain type. Compare "A book I saw on the shelf" and "The book I gave you yesterday".

a Noun

— A is the first letter of the alphabet. The letter "a" comes before "b". — In some schools, an A is a very high grade. Ron got an A on his earth science test.

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short Adjective

— If something is short then there is a small distance from the bottom to the top. The opposite is tall. I can't reach the table because I'm too short. The more I use the pencil, the shorter it becomes. — If something is short then there is a small distance from the one end to the other. The opposite is long. — If something is short then it takes a little time.

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history Noun

— History is what happened in the past. China has many old books about its history. The restaurant is close to the city's history and art museums. — History is the study of what happened in the past. He is a professor of history. — If somebody or something makes history, they do something very important that will not be forgotten. She made history by becoming Africa's first elected female president. — If somebody or something goes down in history, they are remembered by people because they were very important or well known. She'll go down in history as one of our greatest writers. — A history is a book recording things that have happened. He was reading a history of Ancient Rome. — If somebody or something has a history of something, it's very common for them. She has a history of cheating on tests. — If you say something is history, you mean it's finished, over, dead, or not important any more. OK, that game's history. — If you say the rest is history, you mean you don't have to tell about because everyone already knows. They just happened to run into each other at the right time, and the rest is history.

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of Preposition

— Made using. It is a house of cards.

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nearly Adverb

— If something is nearly it is close to true, but not true. He was nearly dead, but we revived him. We were nearly hit by the car, but got out of its way just in time.

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everything Compound Determinative

— Everything is all that exists, or all things in one area. If you win, you get everything: the car and all other prizes you won!

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