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stands on the shoulders of giants

stands on the shoulders of giants is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stand on the shoulders of giants.

Meaning of stand on the shoulders of giants

Verb

stand on the shoulders of giants (third-person singular simple present stands on the shoulders of giants, present participle standing on the shoulders of giants, simple past and past participle stood on the shoulders of giants)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To build on the achievements of others before one.
    • If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.1675 February 5, Isaac Newton, “Newton to Hooke”, in H. W. Turnbull, editor, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Volume I: 1661–1675, Cambridge University Press, published 1959, page 416

Questions about stands on the shoulders of giants

What is stands on the shoulders of giants the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Stands on the shoulders of giants is the third-person singular simple present indicative of stand on the shoulders of giants.

Words near stands on the shoulders of giants in the dictionary

  1. stands on one's head
  2. stands on one's own bottom
  3. stands on one's own two feet
  4. stands on someone's shoulders
  5. stands on the shoulders of
  6. stands on the shoulders of giants
  7. stands on velvet
  8. stands one's ground
  9. stands one's hand
  10. stands one's lick log
  11. stands out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stands on the shoulders of giants (page history and authors); stand on the shoulders of giants (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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