controls

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of control.

   The cockpit controls were arranged within easy reach of the pilot.

   Regulators tightened the financial controls after the audit.

   Note

   The plural picks out the countable things a control can be: the levers and buttons of a cockpit, the safeguards of a security system, the policies a regulator tightens, the control groups of an experiment. The same spelling also serves as the present-tense verb, so "the pilot controls" and "the pilot's controls" differ by a single apostrophe. A determiner or modifier in front (the, its, financial) marks the noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of control.

   The director controls every aspect of the production from casting to final edit.

   A single valve controls the flow of water into the main tank.

   Note

   The -s form a singular subject takes in the present: the director controls, a valve controls. The verb is transitive and normally takes a direct object. In the laboratory, though, a study controls for a variable, with the object after for, meaning it reduces that variable's effect rather than governs it. The older senses of checking an account or calling someone to account are archaic or obsolete. Modern readers hear only governing and restraining.

   The study controls for age and income.

   Each trial controls for the placebo effect.

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