lectures

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of lecture.

   The professor's lectures covered the entire history of Rome.

   Evening lectures at the museum draw large crowds.

   Note

   Every meaning of the noun pluralizes the same way, so one spelling covers the talk in a hall, the course built around it, and the scolding at home: weekly lectures in physics, her endless lectures about money. The same spelling also serves as the verb's present-tense form, and only the surrounding grammar shows which word a sentence is using.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of lecture.

   Every semester, the visiting scholar lectures on medieval poetry.

   Whenever the children misbehave, their grandmother lectures them at length.

   Note

   What follows the verb often shows which meaning it carries. With on and a topic and no object, it teaches: she lectures on medieval poetry. With a person as its object, it usually scolds: he lectures his son about money. The teaching meaning can also take its audience directly (she lectures first-year students), so a person as object does not settle it alone, and context decides.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2