All 7 Uses

demonstrate
in
Never Let Me Go
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Miss Emily used to give a lot of the sex lectures herself, and I remember once, she brought in a life-size skeleton from the biology class to demonstrate how it was done.†
p. 83.7 *

demonstrate = show
She was the one always pretending to have finished anything anyone happened to be reading; and she was the only one with this notion that the way to demonstrate your superior reading was to go around telling people the plots of novels they were in the middle of.†
p. 123.6
Rodney's doing a little dance to demonstrate what a good feeling there is.†
p. 160.9
It demonstrates, in a way, that we did our job well.†
p. 260.8

demonstrates = shows
I remember Laura was demonstrating to me an especially disgusting way of blowing your nose for when you really wanted to put off a boy.†
p. 79.5
Most importantly, we demonstrated to the world that if students were reared in humane, cultivated environments, it was possible for them to grow to be as sensitive and intelligent as any ordinary human being.†
p. 261.7
Children demonstrably superior to the rest of us?†
p. 264.3

demonstrably = in a manner that demonstrates or proves

standard suffix: The suffix "-ably" is a combination of the suffixes "-able" and "-ly". It means in a manner that is capable of being. This is the same pattern you see in words like agreeably, favorably, and comfortably.

Definitions:

(1) (demonstrate as in: It demonstrates my point.)
to show
The exact meaning of this sense of demonstrate can depend upon its context. For example:
- "I will demonstrate how to throw a Frisbee." -- show how to do something
- "I will demonstrate how much quicker the new computer is than the old one." -- show how something works
- "Her questioned demonstrated that she was listening and thinking deeply about what was said." -- showed to be true or proved
(2) (demonstrate as in: demonstrate to protest)
a public display supporting a cause -- usually joining with others in a political protest
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)