March 21 marks World Poetry Day and to celebrate we’ve chosen poetry for this month’s Word for Wednesday theme. The word poetry dates to the late-fourteenth century and comes from the Old French ‘poetrie’, from the Latin ‘poeta’. Last week, we looked at the word sonnet, today’s word is limerick. A limerick is a humorous poem made up of five lines that follows the AABBA rhyme scheme. It is also the name of a port city in southwestern Ireland. The word, in reference to the poem, dates to 1896, but it is unclear if it is linked to Limerick in Ireland. One theory suggests that the name...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for October is Halloween. The word Halloween likely dates to the seventeenth century but was popularised in the Burns poem ‘Halloween’ which was written in 1785. It is a Scottish abbreviation of ‘Allhallow-even’ which means ‘Eve of the All Saints’. ‘Hallow’ means ‘holy person’ or ‘saint’. Our first Halloween-themed word of the month is pumpkin. A pumpkin is a round orange Autumn squash that has become associated with Halloween due to the time of year it matures. Pumpkins are used in both sweet and savoury dishes. Since 2003, when Starbucks first introduced the drink,...
We hope you’ve had a spelltastic March! Here’s everything we shared this month: Have you tried our new spelling games? Help decode an enemy message in Codebreaker. Enter the temple and test your spelling skill in Mayan Temple. March’s Word for Wednesday theme was clothing. Learn more about where shirts, trousers, dresses, coats, and shoes got their names from. Did you know there are over a million word lists on Spellzone? Every word list can be used in a variety of online and offline activities – learn more about them here. Each month, we share 3 word lists for you to use when practising your spelling. Our March lists we...
Our Word for Wednesday theme for November is vegetables. A vegetable is a plant or part of a plant that is used for food. The word dates to the mid-fifteenth century when it meant 'non-animal life’ and was used to describe any type of plant. It has been used in reference to plants specifically grown for food since 1767. So far we’ve looked at the words cabbage and potato. This week we’ve chosen two words that are used to refer to the same vegetable—courgette and zucchini. Both words describe a dark green cucumber-shaped squash that is typically eaten when small. The same vegetable left to mature is often called a marrow. Cour...
What does each word mean? The Spellzone dictionary defines aisle as ‘a long narrow passage’. This passage is often ‘between seating areas’ in places like ‘an auditorium’ or ‘a church’. Click here for the full Spellzone dictionary definition of the word. Here is aisle used in some example sentences: As he walked his daughter down the aisle, the father of the bride shed a tear. Please make sure to keep the aisles clear so that people can pass through easily. She found the baked beans in the aisle between the pasta and the toiletries. Click here to find the Spellzone vocabulary lists featuring the word aisle. An isle is &lsq...
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Every year, on March 17th, Irish people all over the world celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. St Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, and is known for bringing Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century. According to legend, St. Patrick used the shamrock as a tool for explaining the Holy Trinity to the pagan Irish (with the leaves representing the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and so it has become traditional to wear the shamrock symbol on St Paddy’s day. Here are ten words with Irish roots: Banshee In Irish mythology, a ‘banshee’ is a female spirit who wails when someone is about to die. In English, the word dates back to th...
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