{
    "term": "figure",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox3000": true,
    "cefr": "a2",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a number representing a particular amount, especially one given in official information",
            "sensetop": "according to… figures",
            "cefr": "a2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "the latest **sales/crime/unemployment figures**"
                },
                {
                    "text": "**Official figures** indicate that crime is falling."
                },
                {
                    "text": "**Figures** for April **show** a slight improvement on previous months."
                },
                {
                    "text": "By 2024, this **figure** had **risen** to 14 million."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Viewing **figures** for the series have **dropped** dramatically."
                },
                {
                    "text": "**Figures released by** the hospital reveal a rise in the number of admissions."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Experts put the real figure at closer to 75%."
                },
                {
                    "text": "According to government figures, 3.6 million children are living in poverty.",
                    "contextForm": "according to… figures"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Her argument is backed up with plenty of **facts and figures**."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We don't need a lot of facts and figures to understand that homelessness is a problem—we see it every day in our cities."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The most recent trade figures vividly illustrate this problem."
                },
                {
                    "text": "According to figures published recently, more people are in serious debt."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Figures obtained by this newspaper show that the group spent 3.6 million euro on TV advertising."
                },
                {
                    "text": "For 2023–24, the figure quoted is $1.295 billion."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The report cites figures as high as 85%."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We can't put a firm figure on it, but attendance was better than ever."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Even though he doubled his sales figures every year, he was fired."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The bank's figures reveal mortgage borrowing rose by £7.9 billion."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The company hopes to double this figure by the end of the year."
                },
                {
                    "text": "64% of American women breastfeed during their infants' first weeks of life, but after 6 months, that figure drops to 29%."
                },
                {
                    "text": "These figures reflect sales for just the early part of the summer."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Do those figures include families with no children living at home?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "A breakdown of the figures shows that 73% of the employees who requested flexible working were women."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The average price is nearly 20% above the figure for the previous year."
                },
                {
                    "text": "This figure represents an increase of nearly 13%."
                },
                {
                    "text": "This figure might suggest several billion pounds a year of losses worldwide."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The government has just released new unemployment figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The industry remains in the doldrums, according to official figures out today."
                },
                {
                    "text": "These figures don't add up."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The final figure looks like being much higher than predicted."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Lots of different figures were being bandied about."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Maths and measurement"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["high", "low", "double"],
                "verb + figure": ["reach", "exceed", "add"],
                "figure + verb": ["add up", "be bandied about", "indicate something"],
                "phrases": ["according to (the) figures", "in round figures"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "a symbol rather than a word representing one of the numbers between 0 and 9",
            "sensetop": "in… figures",
            "cefr": "a2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Write the figure ‘7’ on the board."
                },
                {
                    "text": "paths built in the shape of a figure 8"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a six-figure salary *(= over 100 000 pounds or dollars)*"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Her salary is now in six figures.",
                    "contextForm": "in… figures"
                },
                {
                    "text": "My unread email was in triple figures *(= more than 100)*."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Ticket prices for the show are likely to be into three figures *(= at least 100 pounds or dollars)*."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Roads loop around the site in a figure eight."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Skaters carve figure eights in the ice."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Write a figure ‘1’ next to bids that were successful and ‘0’ next to those that were not."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Inflation is now in single figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The rate of inflation reached double figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "England's batters failed to reach triple figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She's earning a six-figure salary."
                },
                {
                    "text": "At that time, very few artists made as many as four figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He took a photo of her and sold it to a tabloid newspaper for five figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I'd be surprised if the fee doesn't run into five figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The gross sales of a moderately successful book come in the low five figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "After five years she can expect to earn in the high five figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The crowds the band can attract have dipped to the low four figures."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Maths and measurement"]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "the area of mathematics that deals with adding, multiplying, etc. numbers",
            "labels": "(informal)",
            "cefr": "a2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "Are you any good at figures?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "I'm afraid I don't **have a head for figures** *(= I am not good at adding, etc.)*."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I was never very good at figures."
                }
            ],
            "synonyms": "arithmetic",
            "topics": ["Maths and measurement"]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 4,
            "definition": "a person of the type mentioned",
            "sensetop": "figure of something",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a **leading figure** in the music industry"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a **senior figure** in the organization"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a **key/prominent/central figure**"
                },
                {
                    "text": "King's widow, Coretta Scott King, later became a **public figure** in her own right."
                },
                {
                    "text": "teachers and other **authority figures**"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a figure of authority/ridicule",
                    "contextForm": "figure of something"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He was a well-known figure in London at that time."
                },
                {
                    "text": "one of the most popular figures in athletics"
                },
                {
                    "text": "When she last saw him, he was a sad figure—old and tired."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Several powerful political figures spoke out against him."
                },
                {
                    "text": "As a public figure, you have certain responsibilities."
                },
                {
                    "text": "a key figure on the committee"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He was one of the most prominent figures of the Pop Art movement."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She was a central figure in revolutionary politics at that time."
                },
                {
                    "text": "one of modern architecture's most influential figures"
                },
                {
                    "text": "She often came into conflict with teachers and other authority figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Kinsey was a controversial figure in his own time."
                },
                {
                    "text": "celebrities who have become figures of ridicule"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He was not only a composer but a figure of some historical importance."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She is interested in Jesus as a historical figure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He corresponded with notable artists, art historians, and literary figures."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He was an Italian painter, a shadowy figure about whose life very little is known."
                },
                {
                    "text": "a relatively unknown figure from the world of fashion"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He was a familiar figure in the local pub."
                },
                {
                    "text": "They were visited by the unlikely figure of Donald Trump."
                },
                {
                    "text": "A male Scottish law professor seems an unlikely figure to be writing novels about an African woman detective."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["great", "central", "key"],
                "preposition": ["figure of"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 5,
            "definition": "the shape of a person seen from a distance or not clearly",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "There before him stood a tall figure in black."
                },
                {
                    "text": "A **shadowy figure** can be seen through the window."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The seated figure in the corner beckoned me over."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I saw a shadowy figure approaching."
                },
                {
                    "text": "A hooded figure stood by the door."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Who is the figure in the background?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "I opened my eyes to see several figures standing over me."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She appears as a ghostly figure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Just then, two figures appeared over the horizon."
                },
                {
                    "text": "There was a figure coming up the path."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["cloaked", "hooded", "masked"],
                "figure + noun": ["painter", "drawing", "painting"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 6,
            "definition": "the shape of the human body, especially a woman’s body that is considered attractive",
            "labels": "(becoming old-fashioned)(informal)(formal)(British English)(British English)(disapproving)(both informal, often disapproving)(informal, disapproving)",
            "cefr": "b1",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "You have a really good figure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I'm watching my figure *(= trying not to put on weight)*."
                },
                {
                    "text": "foods that are good for the health and the figure"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Dancing is fun and great for your figure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I thought if I had a baby I'd lose my figure."
                },
                {
                    "text": "How do you get such a great figure?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "He's small, with a rather plump figure."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Appearance"],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["beautiful", "fine", "good"],
                "verb + figure": ["cut", "have", "keep"],
                "phrases": ["a fine figure of a man", "a fine figure of a woman"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 7,
            "definition": "a person or an animal in a drawing, painting, etc., or in a story",
            "cefr": "b2",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The central figure in the painting is the artist's daughter."
                }
            ],
            "topics": ["Art"]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 8,
            "definition": "a statue of a person or an animal",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a bronze figure of a horse"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 9,
            "definition": "a picture, diagram, etc. in a book, that is referred to by a number or letter",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The results are illustrated in figure 3 opposite."
                },
                {
                    "text": "See Figure 8."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Figure 4 represents the process of soil erosion."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "verb + figure": ["refer to", "see"],
                "figure + verb": ["illustrate something", "show something"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 10,
            "definition": "a particular shape formed by lines or surfaces",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "a five-sided figure"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a solid figure"
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 11,
            "definition": "a pattern or series of movements performed on ice",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The skater executed a perfect set of figures."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "to be/become somebody that other people laugh at",
            "examples": []
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "to have a particular appearance",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "He cut a striking figure in his white dinner jacket."
                },
                {
                    "text": "He cut a dashing figure in his uniform."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "accurate and detailed information",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "I've asked to see all the facts and figures before I make a decision."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": null,
            "definition": "to say the exact price or number of something",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "It’s impossible to put a figure on the number of homeless people in London."
                },
                {
                    "text": "You can't put a dollar figure on the lives ruined by the hurricane."
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɪɡə(r)/",
                "audio": "fi/figure/figure__gb_3.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/ˈfɪɡjər/",
                "audio": "fi/figure/figure__us_2.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English (in the senses ‘distinctive shape of a person or thing’, ‘representation of something material or immaterial’, and ‘numerical symbol’, among others): from Old French figure (noun), figurer (verb), from Latin figura ‘shape, figure, form’; related to fingere ‘form, contrive’."
}