See connect the dots in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
Download JSON data for connect the dots meaning in English (3.7kB)
{
"etymology_text": "From the children's pencil and paper puzzle “Connect The Dots”, also known as “Join The Dots”.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "connects the dots",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "connecting the dots",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "connected the dots",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "connected the dots",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "connect the dots (third-person singular simple present connects the dots, present participle connecting the dots, simple past and past participle connected the dots)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991, Roberta Collier, The Little Animal Follow-The-Dots Coloring Book, Courier Corporation, page 3",
"text": "To connect the dots, use a pen or pencil and draw a line from dot 1 to dot 2, from dot 2 to dot 3 and so on until all the dots are connected. You can try to guess what kind of animal is shown in the picture before you connect the dots.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To attempt to complete a puzzle in which dots on a paper must be connected in a specific order so that the joining lines form a picture."
],
"id": "en-connect_the_dots-en-verb-V9LQNHjF",
"links": [
[
"puzzle",
"puzzle"
],
[
"paper",
"paper"
],
[
"order",
"order"
],
[
"join",
"join"
],
[
"line",
"line"
],
[
"picture",
"picture"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(literally) To attempt to complete a puzzle in which dots on a paper must be connected in a specific order so that the joining lines form a picture."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"word": "dot to dot"
},
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"word": "put two and two together"
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"word": "join the dots"
}
],
"tags": [
"literally"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"word": "päästä jäljille"
},
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"word": "relier les points"
},
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "levonja a következtetést"
},
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "łączyć kropki"
},
{
"_dis1": "80 20",
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "połączyć kropki"
}
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "34 66",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 September 25, Thomas L. Friedman, quoting Clyde Prestowitz, “Connect The Dots”, in New York Times",
"text": "If only the Bush team connected the dots, it would see what a nutty war on terrorism it is fighting, explains Mr. Prestowitz.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 July 9, AP, quoting Chris Gloninger, “‘You should have seen this note’: US meteorologists harassed for reporting on climate crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
"text": "“I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make connections in one's mind, in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of a situation."
],
"id": "en-connect_the_dots-en-verb-yjPLhplH",
"links": [
[
"connection",
"connection"
],
[
"mind",
"mind"
],
[
"in order to",
"in order to"
],
[
"holistic",
"holistic"
],
[
"understanding",
"understanding"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension, idiomatic) To make connections in one's mind, in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of a situation."
],
"tags": [
"broadly",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"word": "connect the dots"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English verbs"
],
"etymology_text": "From the children's pencil and paper puzzle “Connect The Dots”, also known as “Join The Dots”.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "connects the dots",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "connecting the dots",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "connected the dots",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "connected the dots",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "*"
},
"expansion": "connect the dots (third-person singular simple present connects the dots, present participle connecting the dots, simple past and past participle connected the dots)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "dot to dot"
},
{
"word": "put two and two together"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1991, Roberta Collier, The Little Animal Follow-The-Dots Coloring Book, Courier Corporation, page 3",
"text": "To connect the dots, use a pen or pencil and draw a line from dot 1 to dot 2, from dot 2 to dot 3 and so on until all the dots are connected. You can try to guess what kind of animal is shown in the picture before you connect the dots.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To attempt to complete a puzzle in which dots on a paper must be connected in a specific order so that the joining lines form a picture."
],
"links": [
[
"puzzle",
"puzzle"
],
[
"paper",
"paper"
],
[
"order",
"order"
],
[
"join",
"join"
],
[
"line",
"line"
],
[
"picture",
"picture"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(literally) To attempt to complete a puzzle in which dots on a paper must be connected in a specific order so that the joining lines form a picture."
],
"tags": [
"literally"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 September 25, Thomas L. Friedman, quoting Clyde Prestowitz, “Connect The Dots”, in New York Times",
"text": "If only the Bush team connected the dots, it would see what a nutty war on terrorism it is fighting, explains Mr. Prestowitz.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2023 July 9, AP, quoting Chris Gloninger, “‘You should have seen this note’: US meteorologists harassed for reporting on climate crisis”, in The Guardian, →ISSN",
"text": "“I started just connecting the dots between extreme weather and climate change, and then the volume of pushback started to increase quite dramatically,” he said in an interview with the Associated Press.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To make connections in one's mind, in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of a situation."
],
"links": [
[
"connection",
"connection"
],
[
"mind",
"mind"
],
[
"in order to",
"in order to"
],
[
"holistic",
"holistic"
],
[
"understanding",
"understanding"
],
[
"situation",
"situation"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension, idiomatic) To make connections in one's mind, in order to arrive at a more holistic understanding of a situation."
],
"tags": [
"broadly",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "join the dots"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"word": "päästä jäljille"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"word": "relier les points"
},
{
"code": "hu",
"lang": "Hungarian",
"word": "levonja a következtetést"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"tags": [
"imperfective"
],
"word": "łączyć kropki"
},
{
"code": "pl",
"lang": "Polish",
"tags": [
"perfective"
],
"word": "połączyć kropki"
}
],
"word": "connect the dots"
}
{
"called_from": "page/2517",
"msg": "UNIMPLEMENTED parse_translation_template: trans-top-see {1: \"to make connections in one's mind, arriving at a more holistic understanding of a situation\", 2: 'put two and two together'}",
"path": [
"connect the dots",
"trans-top-see"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "verb",
"title": "connect the dots",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-09 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (4d5d0bb and edd475d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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