engineer

Everyday

1. An engineer is a person who designs and builds machines, bridges, roads, buildings, computers or other things, using science and maths. tree →
2. An engineer is a person who fixes or looks after engines and machines. tree →
3. To engineer means to design and build something, or to arrange something cleverly, sometimes secretly. tree →

In the lessons

In STEM lessons, pupils act like engineers: they design, test and improve bridges, towers and machines. In everyday life, engineers make roads, phones, cars and water systems. Phrases: civil engineer, software engineer, engineering, design engineer.

Examples

• My mum is an engineer who builds bridges. tree →
• Engineers designed this tall building. tree →
• We acted like engineers and built a paper bridge. tree →
• A software engineer writes computer programs. tree →
• The ship's engineer fixed the engine. tree →
• She wants to be an engineer when she grows up. tree →
• The plan was cleverly engineered. tree →
• For the gardener's boy meant, as soon as he was grown up, to be a general and a poet and a Prime Minister and an admiral and a civil engineer. tree →

Note

Countable; use an: an engineer. Subject: engineering. Stress on the last part: en-gi-NEER. Engineers can be anyone, girls and boys alike; maths and science help.