(~s)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
Your ~s are the members of your family.
Get a ~ to look after the children.
= relation
N-COUNT
2.
You use ~ to say that something is true to a certain degree, especially when compared with other things of the same kind.
The fighting resumed after a period of ~ calm...
= comparative
ADJ: ADJ n
3.
You use ~ when you are comparing the quality or size of two things.
They chatted about the ~ merits of London and Paris as places to live...
ADJ: ADJ n
4.
Relative to something means with reference to it or in comparison with it.
Japanese interest rates rose ~ to America’s...
PREP-PHRASE
5.
If you say that something is ~, you mean that it needs to be considered and judged in relation to other things.
Fitness is ~; one must always ask ‘Fit for what?’...
? absolute
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ
6.
If one animal, plant, language, or invention is a ~ of another, they have both developed from the same type of animal, plant, language, or invention.
The pheasant is a close ~ of the Guinea hen.
N-COUNT: usu N of n