awards

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of award.

   The ceremony celebrated the year's most prestigious literary awards.

   Several awards went unclaimed because the winners failed to attend.

   Note

   A plain -s plural that gathers several different things under one spelling: prizes and medals, grants that fund research, the decisions of arbitrators, and, in Australia and New Zealand, the negotiated wage-and-conditions agreements of a trade. The same spelling is also the present-tense verb, as in she awards. Usually the context decides which one is meant. A determiner such as the, several or these marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of award.

   The committee awards a scholarship to one outstanding applicant annually.

   The court awards damages whenever negligence is proven.

   Note

   The interesting grammar here is in the objects. The verb can take the thing given (awards a grant), the person who receives it (awards the runner-up), or both at once: the panel awards her a medal, or awards a medal to her. In British examinations it also means giving credit, so the examiner awards two marks for a correct answer.

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