Synonyms — Let's Practice!

Synonyms — Let's Practice! exercise

• What are the synonyms?

  Hints

  Find a word that means the same as the adjective already used. If someone feels joy, are they happy or sad?

  Sometimes when we are sad we can also feel annoyed, but is that the same feeling?

  Solution

  Pip is feeling very happy today because it is sunny. Pip is joyful.

  Pip is feeling sad because he lost his toy. Pip is feeling upset.

• Finding synonyms.

  Hints

  Look for root words within the synonyms for clues. For example, courageous has courage and challenging has challenge.

  When someone is furious they are full of fury or rage. What could this be a synonym for?

  Solution

  This table shows the correctly paired synonyms.

• Jumbled up letters.

  Hints

  Begin by reading the word and trying to think of other words that have the same meaning. What has the same meaning as sad?

  Can the letters be re-arranged to make the word? For example, p h a y p can be unscrambled to spell: happy.

  Solution

  The correct synonyms are:

  • sad and upset
  • beautiful and pretty
  • intelligent and clever

• Using synonyms in sentences.

  Hints

  The mouse's house is very small. Which word from the word bank means very small or mini?

  The animals think the cheese is tasty, that means they like it, so they would not say it was disgusting.

  Despise means to hate something. Is this a word that would fit in the sentences?

  Solution

  Once there was a very small mouse who lived in a tiny underground house. All the other mice would ask, "Why is your house so miniscule?"

  "It has always been this way," replied the mouse. "But it is amazing anyway, I adore it!"

  The little mouse, Nia, who was always very polite and curteous, asked the other animals if they would like to share the cheese.

  "Thank you!" the animals called, "It is very tasty indeed, absolutely delectable!"

• Synonyms for adjectives.

  Hints

  If someone is diligent, it means that they take care with the work that they do.

  Someone that might be described as valiant is a soldier or knight.

  Intrepid is sometimes used to describe explorers.

  Solution

  The correct synonyms are shown in this table.

• Are they synonyms?

  Hints

  Try using each of the words in the same sentence. Do they still work to give the same meaning?

  Think of a category that the words might all match, e.g. big. Do all the words fit into this category?

  Solution

  1. sad - distraught - devastated Yes
  2. excited - eager - disappointed No
  3. rugged - jagged - bumpy Yes
  4. enormous - immense - colossal Yes
  5. shy - timid - withdrawn Yes
  6. confident - outgoing - reserved No