Define the Word
All work must be handwritten.
Note: All bold terms must appear on your work. Following each bold term is the information that you have found.
Directions: Find the following items for your vocabulary word or words:
- Formal Definition: As found in a dictionary. If multiple definitions exist, then you choose the one that you think is most common. Note: you must document the dictionary that you use. For this assignment, you may simply write the title of the dictionary or the name of the website.
- Friendly Definition: You use your own words to describe this word
- Synonyms: List several words that mean the same thing
- Antonyms: List at least one word that means the opposite
- Commonality: Describe what the vocabulary word and one of its antonyms has in common or describes (example: Hot and Cold are words that describe temperature; happy and angry are words that describe mood; vortex and wave are words that describe the up-down motion of water)
- Type of Speech: What part of speech is the word a verb, adverb, noun, adjective, pronoun, article, preposition, conjunction, or interjection
- Derivations: what suffixes can be attached to your word: -s, -ing, -ed, -es, -ess, -ion, -ian, -cy, and so on. English has dozens of suffixes. Please list all the derivations found in a dictionary.
- Picture: Find a photo or an image that you think represents the word you have
- Paragraph: Write a paragraph. Use the word in one sentence. Rewrite the formal definition someplace in this paragraph. Use context clues in the other sentences to define the word within the paragraph. You MUST include BOTH the vocabulary word and part of its definition in the paragraph
- Headline: Do an <Advanced Search> on <Google News> for your word. Find your word used in two headlines (for news stories), copy and paste the two headlines.
- Homonym: What other word often becomes confused or mixed up with your word? Write the word and then write the definition for that homonym (you may use your own definition to describe the homonym).
- Formality: Please choose one of these four: informal, slightly informal, slightly formal, formal; then explain in full sentences why you picked the level of formality that you picked.
- Connotation: Choose one of these three: negative, neutral, positive; you do not have to defend your answer.
- Origin: Where did the word come from
- History: How has the word changed over time; did it once mean something different than from today
- Famous Quotes that use the word
- Other Classes: Use the word appropriately for a class in math, in science, in history, in choir
- Access
- Adage
- Allotment
- Articulate
- Assent
- Bedlam
- Candid
- Convene
- Debilitate
- Decrepit
- Demise
- Disgruntled
- Dole
- Ecstatic
- Excruciating
- Forfeit
- Formulate
- Garble
- Haggle
- Imposter
- Luster
- Meander
- Methodic
- Morbid
- Nocturne
- Obnoxious
- Orient
- Outgrowth
- Parameters
- Paraphrase
- Protrude
- Rampant
- Register
- Scathe
- Suppress
- Surpass
- Venture
- Whet
Context Clues
What are context clues? Context clues are other words that appear in a sentence that help a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
Example: Although everyone else had turned and fled from the monster's cave, the doughty hero continued onward without fear.
Whatever definition you give to "doughty" will likely be similar to either the definition of "doughty" itself or to synonyms of "doughty," such as fearless, dauntless, gutsy, bold, resolute, intrepid, determined, or valiant. The point is that any word no longer fits properly into the sentence. The point is that antonyms for "doughty" no longer fit properly into the sentence.
Sentence with no context clue: He was doughty. He was happy, sad, old, young, tired, awake, big, small, stinky, clean, rich, intelligent?
Adding the word "very" does NOT add a context clue: He was very doughty.