© boardworks ltd 2006 1 of 23© boardworks ltd 20061 of 23 word meanings year 7 vocabulary...

© Boardworks Ltd 20061 of 23 © Boardworks Ltd 20061 of 23

Word MeaningsYear 7 Vocabulary

Teacher’s notes included in the Notes Page

Accompanying worksheet

Flash activity. These activities are not editable.

Web addressesExtension activities

Icons key: For more detailed instructions, see the Getting Started presentation

© Boardworks Ltd 20062 of 23

Contents


Learning new words

Prefixes and suffixes

Word stems

Connotations

Context

Class game


Word meanings: Learning new words


Word meanings

Learning new words


Learning new words

There are millions of words in the English language.

How can anyone learn that many words? It

takes me ages to learn even a few new words

and their meanings.

It is virtually impossible to learn every word in our language. However, when you see a new word, it is often possible to give an educated guess at its meaning because of certain patterns and rules that are followed.


Learning new words

A lot of long words can be broken down into smaller segments. For example:

Even though you may not know what a word means, you may know the meanings or implications of the smaller chunks and so can guess at its meaning.

disadvantageous

advantage -ousdis-

e.g. disobey, dissimilar, distasteful

e.g. beauteous, mountainous, horrendous

What do you think ‘disadvantageous’ means?

prefix meaning ‘not’ suffix which creates an adjective from a noun


Word meanings: Prefixes and suffixes


Word meanings



Prefixes


Suffixes


Word meanings: Word stems


Word meanings

Word stems


Stems/roots

Prefixes and suffixes are attached to the stem, or root, of the word. The same root can often take many different prefixes and suffixes and many have classical origins. This means that some meanings are easier to guess than others.

What do you think the Latin ‘-scrib-’ or ‘-script-’

might mean?

scribescribblescript

describedescriptionprescribe

prescriptionsubscribe

subscription

to write, writing

What do you think the Latin word

‘populus’ means?

(the) people

What do you think the English word ‘populous’

might mean?

population(un)popularpopularly

populate(d)popularitypopularize

populist

How many words can you think of that contain the stem ‘-dict-’ (‘say’)?


Stems/roots

Other stems include these ones below.

Do you know what the words on the right mean? Can you guess?

-port- ‘to carry’deport, export, import, report,

support, transport

-tract-‘to pull,

drag, draw’

attract, contract, detract, extract, protract, retract,

traction, tractor

-path-‘feeling,

suffering’

empathy, sympathy, apathy,

psychopath


Word meanings: Connotations


Word meanings

Connotations


Connotations

Words do not just have meanings; they also have connotations. Connotations are the ideas or feelings that words evoke that may be in addition to their meanings.

For example, ‘rabbit’ and ‘bunny’ have identical meanings but ‘bunny’ might make you think of a smaller, sweeter creature. It might also make you think that the speaker is either a young child or addressing one.

The connotations of a word form part of its meaning.

What connotations do these words have for you? (What do they make you think of?)

winter birth smile shiver


Connotations


Written and spoken language


Degrees of meaning


Word meanings: Context


Word meanings

Context


Context

The exact meaning of a word is affected not only by its connotations, but also by the context in which it is used.

For example, the words ‘big’ and ‘small’ can be used to describe objects of different sizes, depending on what they are referring to – a big wasp is still a lot smaller than a small house, for example.

In other words, the exact meanings of the words ‘big’ and ‘small’ are dependent on their contexts (context-dependent).

Can you think of any other words whose exact meanings

are context-dependent?


Context

The meanings of many words are dependent on the contexts in which they are found. Read the sentences below and then define the highlighted word in two ways according to the contexts it is in.

I broke a window playing football

yesterday.

If you click on the icon in the corner of your

screen, it should bring up a window telling

you what to do.

I think I’d like to learn to play the

organ… Your skin is the largest organ in

your body.

I can’t talk for long so I’ll just

be brief…My teacher didn’t

like the design brief I wrote for

Technology.

Mrs Thomson is going to be

our exam monitor today.

My computer monitor is going to cost nearly £100 to fix after Tom spilt

juice on it.

Which other words can you think of that have different meanings in different contexts? Think particularly about words that are specific to certain subjects.


Word meanings: class game


Word meanings

Class game


Class game

© boardworks ltd 2006 1 of 23© boardworks ltd 20061 of 23 word meanings year 7 vocabulary...

Documents