Class 5 English Vocabulary Worksheet
Class 5 English · Synonyms, antonyms, homophones and idioms · 26 questions with answers
Vocabulary is the quiet driver of comprehension marks - a child who meets three unfamiliar words in a passage loses the thread regardless of how well they read. Homophones get their own exercise here because they are the ones that survive a spellcheck and still cost marks.
- Give a synonym and an antonym for a familiar word.
- Choose the correct homophone for a sentence.
- Explain what a common idiom means.
Exercise 1 of 5 · 6 questions
Write a synonym (a word with a similar meaning).
Write the answer · Warm-up
- 1)happy
- 2)big
- 3)quick
- 4)brave
- 5)difficult
- 6)beautiful
Answers
- 1) glad / cheerful / pleased
- 2) large / huge / enormous
- 3) fast / rapid / swift
- 4) courageous / bold / fearless
- 5) hard / tough / challenging
- 6) lovely / pretty / attractive
Exercise 2 of 5 · 6 questions
Write an antonym (a word with the opposite meaning).
Write the answer · Guided
Here’s one done for you
ancient → modern. Notice the words on this list are harder than 'big/small'. At Class 5 the pairs move beyond the obvious ones, so if a word is unfamiliar, work out what it means first - you cannot find the opposite of a word you do not know.
- 1)ancient
- 2)shallow
- 3)generous
- 4)arrive
- 5)victory
- 6)increase
Answers
- 1) modern / new
- 2) deep
- 3) selfish / mean / stingy
- 4) depart / leave
- 5) defeat / loss
- 6) decrease / reduce
Exercise 3 of 5 · 6 questions
Choose the correct word.
Write the answer · Practice
Here’s one done for you
'The dog wagged (its / it's) tail' → its. Here is the test that always works: it's is short for 'it is'. Read the sentence with 'it is' in place - 'the dog wagged it is tail' is nonsense, so the answer is its. Same for you're (you are) and they're (they are).
- 1)I can (hear / here) the bell.
- 2)(Their / There / They're) house is at the end of the road.
- 3)The dog wagged (its / it's) tail.
- 4)She wrote a letter to (her / here) cousin.
- 5)(Your / You're) going to be late.
- 6)We went to the shop to buy (flour / flower).
Answers
- 1) hear
- 2) Their
- 3) its
- 4) her
- 5) You're
- 6) flour
Exercise 4 of 5 · 5 questions
What does each idiom mean?
Match the pairs · Practice
Here’s one done for you
Idioms cannot be worked out from the individual words - 'a piece of cake' has nothing to do with cake. They have to be learned as whole phrases, which is why they are worth meeting a few at a time rather than in long lists.
- 1)A piece of cake
- 2)Once in a blue moon
- 3)Under the weather
- 4)Let the cat out of the bag
- 5)Break the ice
Answers
- 1) A piece of cake - very easy
- 2) Once in a blue moon - very rarely
- 3) Under the weather - feeling unwell
- 4) Let the cat out of the bag - reveal a secret
- 5) Break the ice - start a conversation in an awkward situation
Exercise 5 of 5 · 3 questions
Work out the underlined word's meaning from the sentence.
Write the answer · Challenge
- 1)The room was so cramped that we could barely move.
- 2)She was reluctant to speak, and stayed quiet for a long time.
- 3)The old bridge was fragile, so only one person crossed at a time.
Answers
- 1) cramped = very small or crowded (clue: they could barely move)
- 2) reluctant = unwilling or hesitant (clue: she stayed quiet)
- 3) fragile = easily broken or weak (clue: only one person could cross)
While your child works
- The it's/its test is the most useful thing here: replace with 'it is' and see if the sentence still makes sense. It works every time and it removes the guesswork permanently.
- Idioms have to be learned whole - they cannot be reasoned out. A few at a time, met in real sentences, works far better than a list of twenty.
- For working out words from context, the clue is almost always in the rest of the sentence. Ask what the sentence tells us about the word rather than reaching for a dictionary.