Christmas is a time for stories. Have you heard of these three Christmas characters? What about these three? How did Charles Dickens, author of A Christmas Carol, influence the English language? Ready to deck the halls? Don’t mix up your bows and your boughs. Is it a rain dear or a reindeer? Speaking of reindeer, where did Santa’s reindeer get their names from? Tried our relaxing Spelling Snowball game yet? Maybe you’ll enjoy these five wintry word lists to practise with. Avoid these 10 spelling mistakes this Christmas. Seasons Greetings! Joyeux Noel! Bah humbug! Find a ...
January marks the shift into the new year and is named for Janus, the Roman god of beginning and transitions. Janus is usually depicted with two heads – one looking back into the past, and the other looking forward to the future. With this in mind, this month’s Word for Wednesday theme is Janus words. A Janus word is a word with contradictory meanings. These words are also known as contronyms and auto antonyms. Our first Janus word of the year is weather. As a noun, this word refers to atmospheric effects like wind, rain, and snow. It is the verb forms of weather that have contradictory meanings. One meaning of the verb weather is ‘to withstand’. F...
The recent bad weather in England has got us thinking about the word flood. A flood is when water overflows and submerges land that is normally dry. While the word is normally used in reference to the weather, it can also be used to describe an overwhelming amount of something fluid or intangible (for example, memories, information, or tears). Flood comes from the Old English ‘flōd’ which in turn comes from the Proto-Germanic ‘floduz’ meaning ‘flowing water or deluge’. The word has been used metaphorically to mean ‘sudden abundance’ since the mid-fourteenth century. From floods of tears, to being flooded with memories, to o...
Although it may be June, here in England it doesn’t feel like summer. With flood and thunderstorm warnings, and disruption on our roads and railways, this rain is more of a downpour than a shower. Still, it got us thinking about the word shower itself. While most of us probably associate showers with bathing before we do with rain, the word didn’t take on this meaning until 1859 (when it was first used as an abbreviation for shower-bath – a word attested from 1803). Shower comes from the Old English ‘scur’ meaning ‘a short fall of rain, storm, tempest; fall of missiles or blows; struggle, commotion; breeze’. It has been used metaphoricall...
What does each word mean? The word rain is used as both a noun (to describe water that falls in drops from the vapour condensed in the atmosphere) and as a verb (to describe the act of water droplets falling from the sky). Click here for the full Spellzone dictionary definition of the word. Here is rain used in some example sentences: The rain was heavy in the morning but slowed to a light drizzle by lunchtime. It rained heavily in the morning but at lunchtime the sun came out. The soldier dodged the bullets raining down on him and searched for cover. Click here to find the Spellzone vocabulary lists related to the word rain. As a noun, reign refers to the period d...
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