Figure means a number, especially in reports and statistics: sales figures show how much a company has sold. It also means the shape of a person's body, or an important person in some area: a public figure is someone well known to the public. But figure is not used for every kind of shape or piece: chess pieces are called pieces, and in everyday speech squares and circles are usually called shapes.
figure: will you get the meaning right?
Write a sentence — we'll check that the word fits the meaning and explain any mistakes.
The check is taking longer than usual. Your feedback will appear here automatically.
sales/official + figures; a figure of + amount; a key/public/political + figure; chess pieces (not chess figures)
- Please check the figures in the budget before we send it to the director.
- Official figures show that the number of tourists in the city has grown this year.
- Tolstoy is a key figure in Russian literature, and his books are on every school reading list.
What changed
First versionI bought my son a set of wooden chess figures for his birthday.
RevisionI bought my son a set of wooden chess pieces for his birthday.
Chess pieces can look like little figures, so learners sometimes write chess figures. In English the things you move on a chessboard are pieces: a chess piece, chess pieces. Figure is not used in this sense.
Figure and number are close, but figures usually means numbers in reports, statistics and finance: sales figures, a figure of £2,000. Number is simply a number or an amount: a phone number, the number of students. A single symbol from 0 to 9 is a digit: a four-digit PIN.
Your turn
The sales ___ for March were much higher than we expected, so the whole team got a bonus.
Show the answer
figures — This is about the sales results for March, and the set phrase for them is sales figures. A digit is a single symbol from 0 to 9; you talk about digits in a code or a phone number, not in results.
Describe a report, table or bill you have worked with recently. Say which figures in it were the most important and what they showed.
In last month's report, the most important figures were our delivery times: they showed that orders were reaching customers two days faster than before.
Learn to use new words without mistakes
Write phrases with the words you are learning. LetsWords shows mistakes in usage and grammar, suggests corrections and explains them, and review helps the words stick.