Englishfor English speakers
mean
Verb
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A word means something when the word expresses the same idea as the other something.
Slay means kill. Both of them mean to make dead.
mean
Adjective
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When you are a mean person, you are not nice.
The boys who hit you were very mean.
mean
Noun
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The mean is a measure of the average of a list of numbers. The sum total of the numbers divided by how many numbers in the list.
The mean of the numbers 2,3,4 is 3. (2+3+4)/3 = 9/3 = 3.
ill
Adjective
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If you are ill you are angry or disturbed.
You are making me ill with your attacks.
by
Preposition
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near or next to.
The mailbox is by the bus stop.
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at some time before (the given time).
Be back by ten o'clock!
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if something is done by somebody, it is done through their action
The matter was decided by the chairman.
The boat was swamped by the water.
He was protected by his body armour.
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if something is created by somebody, they are the creator, author, etc.
There are many well-known plays by William Shakespeare.
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shows how someone does something
I avoided the guards by moving only when they weren't looking.
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using the rules or logic of.
I sorted the items by category.
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with a change of. In this case, by shows how much something has changed.
Our stock is up by ten percent.
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shows how slowly, or how quickly, someone does something (used in the form "X by X" or "by Xs")
We went through the book page by page.
We crawled forward by inches.
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If you multiply mathx/math by mathy/math, you multiply mathx/math × mathy/math.
Five multiplied by seven is 35.
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If you divide mathx/math by mathy/math, you find how many mathy/maths are in mathx/math.
35 divided by seven is five.