on

Common with clothes, body parts, surfaces, and parts of machines. Distinguish from sense 1: here the thing is often worn, hanging, covering, or attached rather than simply resting in a place.

Use this sense with days, dates, and named occasions. Compare 'at' for clock times ('at six') and 'in' for months, years, and longer periods ('in June', 'in winter').

The noun after 'on' is the surface carrying the marks, such as paper, a wall, a sign, a page, or a screen. Distinguish from sense 2: in this sense, the important idea is that information or a picture appears there.

Use this sense for travel by bus, train, horse, bicycle, and in the fixed phrase 'on foot'. Compare 'by bus' or 'by train', which name the method more generally and not the experience of being on the vehicle.

Usually appears in fixed phrases after 'be', 'go', or 'stay'. The noun after 'on' names the state or process itself, not the thing providing support. Distinguish from sense 15: sense 6 is about being in a condition or action ('on strike', 'on trial'), while sense 15 names what someone or something lives or runs on.

The noun after 'on' is usually a medium or instrument: radio, video, film, TV, piano, guitar. Distinguish from sense 4 (WRITING), which marks the surface where words or pictures appear.

Usually follows verbs such as hit, bang, cut, bruise, or scrape. The noun after 'on' is often a hard edge, rough surface, or sharp object.

Most common after verbs of attack or forward movement, such as march, fire, turn, or set. Distinguish from sense 1 (ABOVE), where 'on' describes physical contact with a surface.

Common after nouns or verbs of speaking, writing, teaching, and thinking: book on, talk on, opinion on, advice on, lecture on. Distinguish from sense 12, which follows verbs of dependence or basis such as depend on or base on.

Usually appears after spend, waste, save, or nouns such as money, cost, and deposit. The noun after 'on' is the item, service, or event that receives the payment.

Common after depend, rely, base, rest, hang, and hinge. A following clause is often introduced by 'whether' or an -ing form, as in 'depends on whether it rains' or 'depends on Maya arriving early'.

Often follows verbs such as 'be', 'work', or 'stay'. The object is usually a task, duty, case, project, programme, or trip rather than a formal organization. Distinguish from sense 17, which is more about membership in an established group.

Usually follows 'live', 'survive', 'get by', or 'be'. The object is a source of money such as a salary, pension, allowance, scholarship, or customer base, not food or fuel; compare sense 15.

Common after 'live', 'feed', 'run', 'work', or 'be'. The object names what provides nourishment, power, or treatment, so it can be food for living things, fuel for machines, or medicine for patients. Distinguish from sense 14, where the support is money.

The object is usually a road, river, coast, beach, path, wall, or border, and the subject is often a place located beside it. If one thing is touching the surface of another, use sense 1 or 2 instead.

Frequently used after 'be', 'serve', and 'sit'. The object is normally a committee, board, panel, jury, or team with recognized membership. Distinguish from sense 13, which can describe temporary involvement in a task or project.

The object is a device, instrument, machine, platform, or system used to do the action. Distinguish from sense 4 when 'on' marks where words or pictures appear, and from sense 7 when it marks the form or medium of a performance or record.

Mostly appears in repeated-noun patterns such as 'loss on loss' and 'wave on wave'. It emphasizes one similar event after another, rather than simple frequency.

Most common after verbs such as 'improve' or with phrases like 'up on' and 'down on'. Distinguish from sense 10, where 'on' shows topic or relation rather than a direct comparison.

Usually follows 'have', 'keep', or 'carry', and the object after 'on' is normally a person pronoun such as 'me', 'you', or 'her'. It points to things physically with the person, not things they own in general.

Often appears in phrases like 'on hearing...' or after verbs such as 'act'. The event after 'on' is usually the trigger for what happens next, unlike sense 3, which only marks time.

Most common after 'be', especially in short offers such as 'It's on me.' The noun after 'on' names the person or group paying, not the thing being bought.

Common with verbs for breakdown or sudden failure, such as 'freeze', 'die', 'quit', and 'break down'. The noun or pronoun after 'on' names the unlucky person affected by the problem.

Usually follows verbs like 'be', 'go', 'stay', 'finish', or 'end' in sports and competition reports. The phrase after 'on' is normally a number plus 'points'.

Common with objects such as labels, lids, caps, badges, and bandages. Distinguish from sense 1, where the item is on a person, and from preposition sense 2, where 'on' is followed by a noun phrase such as 'on the wall'.

Usually used with things that use power or operate as systems, such as lights, radios, ovens, fans, or screens. Distinguish from adjective sense 1, where 'on' describes the operating state directly before a noun: 'the on switch'.

Most common after verbs such as 'go', 'carry', 'work', 'talk', 'sing', and 'live'. Distinguish from sense 7 in the other adverb chunk, where 'on' means movement forward in time or space rather than simple continuation of an activity.

Common with buses, trains, boats, and planes, and also with bikes, horses, or other things you ride by getting into the right position. Distinguish from preposition sense 5, where 'on' is followed by the transport noun: 'on the bus'.

Subject is usually a performer, band, comedian, or other act, not the event itself. Distinguish from sense 8 in the other adverb chunk, where a show or meeting is happening or scheduled.

Often follows verbs of movement or development, especially in patterns like 'walk on' and 'as time went on'. Distinguish from sense 9, which describes a fixed place farther ahead rather than ongoing movement or progress.

Usually follows 'be', with a subject such as a game, show, meeting, or sale. Distinguish from adverb sense 3, where 'on' describes a machine, light, or device as operating.

Often comes after a distance or place expression, as in 'two miles on' or 'further on'. Distinguish from sense 7, which focuses on continuing movement or passing time rather than a later point on a route.

Subject is usually an event, programme, film, match, meeting, or festival. Often followed by a time phrase ('on Friday', 'on tonight') or a place phrase ('on at the cinema'). Distinguish from sense 1: here 'on' describes something arranged for an audience or participants, not a device receiving power.