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Line can be a verb or a noun.

line used as a verb:

  1. To cover the inside/inner surface of (something).
    "The bird lines its nest with soft grass."
  2. To fill or supply (something), as a purse with money.
    "The charge amounteth very high for any one man’s purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto. — Carew."
  3. To place (objects) into a line (usually used with "up"); to form into a line; to align.
    "to line troops"
  4. To place persons or things along the side of for security or defense; to strengthen by adding; to fortify.
    "to line works with soldiers"
  5. To mark with a line or lines, to cover with lines.
    "to line a copy book"
  6. To represent by lines; to delineate; to portray.
    "1598 — William Shakespeare, As You Like It, iii 2"
  7. To impregnate (applied to brute animals). — Creech.
  8. To read or repeat line by line.
    "to line out a hymn"
  9. To form or enter into a line.
  10. To hit a line drive; to hit a line drive which is caught for an out. Compare fly and ground.

Verbs are action words and state of being words. Examples of action words are: ran, attacking, dreamed. Examples of "state of being" words are: is, was, be. Learn more →

line used as a noun:

  1. A rope, cord, string, or thread; a slender, strong cord, or a cord of any thickness; a hawser.
    "Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. — Piers Plowman"
  2. A path through two or more points (see also segment), a continuous mark, including as made by a pen, pencil, or graver; any path.
    "a chalk line was drawn around the body"
  3. An infinitely extending one-dimensional figure that has no curvature; one that has length but not breadth or thickness.
  4. A line segment; a continuous finite segment of such a figure.
  5. A written or printed row of letters, words, numbers, or other text, especially a row of words extending across a page or column
    "The answer to the comprehension question can be found in the third line of the accompanying text."
  6. # by extension, a verse (in poetry)
  7. # by extension; such a line as read aloud:
  8. # a sentence of dialogue, as in a screenplay.
    "It’s a small part, I have twelve lines in the movie. — Geneveve Bujold in Earthquake"
  9. The official, stated position (or set of positions) of an individual or group, particularly a political or religious faction.
    "Remember, your answers must match the party line."
  10. A letter, a written form of communication.
    "Drop me a line."
  11. The wire connecting one telegraphic station with another, a telephone or internet cable between two points: a telephone or network connection.
    "I tried to make a call, but the line was dead."
  12. A more-or-less straight sequence of people, objects, etc., either arranged as a queue or column and often waiting to be processed or dealt with, or arranged abreast of one another in a row (and contrasted with a column), as in a military formation. Battle of Hohenfriedberg.]]
    "The line forms on the right."
  13. The regular infantry of an army, as distinguished from militia, guards, volunteer corps, cavalry, artillery, etc.
  14. A trench or rampart, or the non-physical demarcation of the extent of the territory occupied by specified armed forces.
  15. The products or services sold by a business, or by extension, the business itself.
    "line of business, product line"
  16. The position in which the fencers hold their swords.
  17. An edge of a graph.
  18. The horizontal path of a ball towards the batsman (see also length).
  19. The batter's box.
  20. Flax; linen, particularly the longer fiber of flax.
    "Garments made of line. — Spenser"
  21. Direction
    "the line of sight or the line of vision"
  22. Course of conduct, thought, occupation, or policy; method of argument; department of industry, trade, or intellectual activity.
    "He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man. — Coleridge"
  23. The exterior limit of a figure, plat, or territory; a boundary; a contour; an outline; a demarcation.
    "1674 — John Milton, Paradise Lost, book IV"
  24. A threadlike crease or wrinkle marking the face or the hand; hence, characteristic mark.
    "Though on his brow were graven lines austere. — Byron"
  25. Lineament; feature; figure (of one's body).
  26. A series or succession of ancestors or descendants of a given person; a family or race; compare lineage.
  27. A connected series of public conveyances, as a roadbed or railway track; and hence, an established arrangement for forwarding merchandise, etc.
    "a line of stages"
  28. A circle of latitude or of longitude, as represented on a map.
  29. The equator.
    "to cross the line"
  30. A long tape, or a narrow ribbon of steel, etc., marked with subdivisions, as feet and inches, for measuring; a tapeline.
  31. That which was measured by a line, as a field or any piece of land set apart; hence, allotted place of abode.
    "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes. I have a goodly heritage. — Ps. xvi. 6"
  32. The proper relative position or adjustment of parts, not as to design or proportion, but with reference to smooth working.
    "the engine is in line / out of line"
  33. One of the straight horizontal and parallel prolonged strokes on and between which the notes are placed.
  34. A number of shares taken by a jobber.
  35. A measure of length equal to one twelfth of an inch.
  36. A hose.

Nouns are naming words. They are used to represent a person (soldier, Jamie), place (Germany, beach), thing (telephone, mirror), quality (hardness, courage), or an action (a run, a punch). Learn more →

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What type of word is line?

As detailed above, 'line' can be a verb or a noun. Here are some examples of its usage:
  1. Verb usage: The bird lines its nest with soft grass.
  2. Verb usage: to line a cloak with silk or fur
  3. Verb usage: to line a box with paper or tin
  4. Verb usage: The charge amounteth very high for any one man’s purse, except lined beyond ordinary, to reach unto. — Carew.
  5. Verb usage: to line troops
  6. Verb usage: to line works with soldiers
  7. Verb usage: 1599 — William Shakespeare, Henry V, ii 4
  8. Verb usage: Line and new repair our towns of war With men of courage and with means defendant.
  9. Verb usage: to line a copy book
  10. Verb usage: 1598 — William Shakespeare, As You Like It, iii 2
  11. Verb usage: All the pictures fairest lined Are but black to Rosalind.
  12. Verb usage: to line out a hymn
  13. Noun usage: Who so layeth lines for to latch fowls. — Piers Plowman
  14. Noun usage: fishing line, anchor line, clothesline, towline
  15. Noun usage: a chalk line was drawn around the body
  16. Noun usage: The arrow descended in a curved line.
  17. Noun usage: The place is remote from lines of travel.
  18. Noun usage: The answer to the comprehension question can be found in the third line of the accompanying text.
  19. Noun usage: In the preceding line Ulysses speaks of Nausicaa. — Broome
  20. Noun usage: It’s a small part, I have twelve lines in the movie. — Geneveve Bujold in Earthquake
  21. Noun usage: Remember, your answers must match the party line.
  22. Noun usage: Their line is gone out through all the earth. — Ps. xix. 4
  23. Noun usage: Drop me a line.
  24. Noun usage: I tried to make a call, but the line was dead.
  25. Noun usage: a dedicated line
  26. Noun usage: a shared line
  27. Noun usage: Please speak up, the line is very faint.
  28. Noun usage: The line forms on the right.
  29. Noun usage: There is a line of houses.
  30. Noun usage: Unite thy forces and attack their lines. — Dryden
  31. Noun usage: line of business, product line
  32. Noun usage: How many buses does the line have?
  33. Noun usage: The airline is in danger of bankruptcy.
  34. Noun usage: A ship of the line.
  35. Noun usage: Garments made of line. — Spenser
  36. Noun usage: the line of sight or the line of vision
  37. Noun usage: He is uncommonly powerful in his own line, but it is not the line of a first-rate man. — Coleridge
  38. Noun usage: 1674 — John Milton, Paradise Lost, book IV
  39. Noun usage: Eden stretchd her Line / From Auran Eastward to the Royal Towrs / Of great Seleucia,
  40. Noun usage: Though on his brow were graven lines austere. — Byron
  41. Noun usage: He tipples palmistry, and dines On all her fortune-telling lines. — Cleveland
  42. Noun usage: a line of stages
  43. Noun usage: an express line
  44. Noun usage: to cross the line
  45. Noun usage: The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes. I have a goodly heritage. — Ps. xvi. 6
  46. Noun usage: the engine is in line / out of line

Unfortunately, with the current database that runs this site, I don't have data about which senses of line are used most commonly. I've got ideas about how to fix this but will need to find a source of "sense" frequencies. Hopefully there's enough info above to help you understand the part of speech of line, and guess at its most common usage.

Word Type

For those interested in a little info about this site: it's a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for - just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn't be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary - which is now in the public domain. However, after a day's work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary - which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it's not properly structured for parsing. That's when I stumbled across the UBY project - an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I'm happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

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