"solve" meaning in English

See solve in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /sɒlv/ [UK], /sɑlv/ [US] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-solve.wav [UK] Forms: solve [canonical], solves [third-person, singular], solved [past], solved [past, participle], solving [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb|solv|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you solve a problem, you fix it or deal with it.
    Sense id: simple-solve-en-verb-IUvGlcVw
  2. If you solve a question, you find a correct answer.
    Sense id: simple-solve-en-verb-R3L4tdDY
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "solve",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solves",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solved",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solved",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solving",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "solv",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"My kids always make a mess of my computer.\" \"Well, you can easily solve the problem by not allowing them to use it.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you solve a problem, you fix it or deal with it."
      ],
      "id": "simple-solve-en-verb-IUvGlcVw",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the equation 3x²+x-2=0 we can solve for x."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you solve a question, you find a correct answer."
      ],
      "id": "simple-solve-en-verb-R3L4tdDY",
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive & intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/sɒlv/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/sɑlv/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-solve.wav",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "solve"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "solve",
      "tags": [
        "canonical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solves",
      "tags": [
        "third-person",
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solved",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solved",
      "tags": [
        "past",
        "participle"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "solving",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "participle"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "solv",
        "2": "e"
      },
      "expansion": "[POS TABLE]",
      "name": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"My kids always make a mess of my computer.\" \"Well, you can easily solve the problem by not allowing them to use it.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you solve a problem, you fix it or deal with it."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "Intransitive verbs",
        "Transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "In the equation 3x²+x-2=0 we can solve for x."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you solve a question, you find a correct answer."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "transitive & intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/sɒlv/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/sɑlv/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-solve.wav",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "solve"
}

Download raw JSONL data for solve meaning in English (1.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). 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.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.