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# sonar

noun (sonar; uncountable)

«sonar» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. Sonar is a way of finding things under water by sending out sound waves and listening for their echoes. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#m1)
2. Sonar is also the machine that does this, used by ships and submarines. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#m2)
3. Animals such as bats and dolphins use a natural kind of sonar called echolocation. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#m3)

### In the lessons

In science lessons about sound, sonar shows that sound travels through water and bounces back as an echo; the time the echo takes tells the distance. Ships use sonar to measure the depth of the sea, find fish or find wrecks. Phrases: «sonar system», «on sonar», «use sonar».

### Examples

- The submarine used sonar to find the shipwreck. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x1)
- Fishing boats use sonar to find shoals of fish. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x2)
- Bats use a kind of natural sonar to catch moths. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x3)
- The sonar screen showed a large shape below the ship. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x4)
- Sonar works by sending out sound and listening for the echo. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x5)
- Dolphins find food with echolocation, which is like sonar. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/#x6)

### Note

Uncountable. It is short for «sound navigation and ranging». In maths problems: the echo goes there and back, so to find the distance, halve the total distance the sound travels (distance = speed × time ÷ 2).

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «sonar» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/sonar/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«sonar» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/sonar.html) on Mova free.