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/rʌn/verb · noun

run

To move quickly on foot; also, to flow, operate, manage, or continue through space or time. As a noun, an act or instance of running.

Across many apparently unrelated uses, something follows a course and keeps going.

Enter the world of run

Watch meaning move

  1. MoveA person moves quickly on foot, or that movement is treated as an event.
  2. FlowA liquid moves continuously in a direction.
  3. OperateA machine, system, or program functions or is made to function.
  4. LeadA person directs or manages an organization, activity, or process.
  5. ContinueSomething extends, lasts, or follows a route through space or time.

A person runs, water runs, a machine runs, a company runs, and software runs; many of these uses can be understood through movement or continuation along a course.

/kliːv/Verb

cleave

To split or divide something, or move forcefully through it; usually in cleave to, to cling or remain firmly loyal.

One modern form supports two opposed reading families: separation and, usually in cleave to, attachment. Grammar and surrounding meaning normally identify the reading; an isolated form may remain ambiguous. Historically, the families descend from distinct verbs. The map is selective, not exhaustive.

Enter the world of cleave

One spelling, two directions

  1. Split or pass throughUses in which a material opens, a whole loses its unity, or a moving subject forces its way onward.
  2. Cling or remain loyalUses in which physical contact or allegiance continues, normally in the construction cleave to.

Context normally identifies the direction. A direct object, a result such as into two, or a path marked by through can signal separation. A cleave to complement naming a surface, person, belief, or practice can signal attachment. Form alone may be insufficient.

/ˈvel.vət/noun · adjective

velvet

A fabric whose short, dense pile rises above a woven ground; also, a velvet-like quality or the living covering of a growing antler.

The page uses velvet's raised pile as an editorial organizing idea for the material and the documented expressions velvet voice and velvet glove; it does not claim a causal, universal, sound-symbolic, or scientific mechanism.

Enter the world of velvet

From material to resemblance

  1. MaterialVelvet as the pile fabric, plus uses before another noun for something made of or covered with that fabric.
  2. ResemblanceSoftness, smoothness, density, or visual depth understood through a comparison with the fabric.
  3. AntlersThe soft, living covering of an antler while it develops.

The page groups velvet into a material family, a resemblance family, and the biological antler sense.

Preview copy is selected from each word’s published definition, sense families, thesis, and configured module fallback.

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Explore the source word, run

From the published run quiz

The road runs along the coast.

Select one answer for immediate feedback.

Read the answer and explanation

Answer: Extends or follows a route

Here, run describes how the road extends along a course.

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More published worlds.

Choose a word, get the quick answer, and follow it somewhere deeper.

01

ampersand

The English name for the character &, which commonly represents the conjunction and.

Grammar
noun
Pronunciation
/ˈæm.pɚ.sænd/
Open ampersand

02

eggcorn

A word or expression reshaped into similar-sounding familiar words that make a new, plausible sense in context.

Grammar
noun
Pronunciation
/ˈeɡ.kɔːrn/
Open eggcorn

03

queue

A line or ordered sequence waiting its turn; as a verb, to wait in such a line or place something in an ordered sequence for later.

Grammar
noun · verb
Pronunciation
/kjuː/
Open queue

04

literally

In an exact or word-for-word sense; also to confirm actuality, add emphatic force including around figurative wording, or, in a separate informal use, mean roughly simply or just.

Grammar
adverb
Pronunciation
/ˈlɪt̬.ɚ.əl.i/
Open literally