Literacy Definitions - Glossary of Words

Unless you know much about Literacy/Language programs, there are many literacy definitions that might confuse or mean very little to you, or you remember them from school but cannot quite remember what they mean.

I thought that having a glossary of english definitions may be helpful to allow for a greater understanding of the information as you read through the web pages.

Believe me, there are so many words out there to do with learning of the english language that it can get very confusing.

Acronym: is a word usually formed from the initial or first letters of words in a phrase eg Qantas - Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services

Adjectives: are describing words, they describe nouns. It will tell what kind, how many, how much and which.

Adverbs: are words that tell us more about an action; provides information about an event or statement - usually telling where, when or why as well as how it occurred.

Adverbial phrase: is a group of words telling us where, when, how or with whom an action is done.

Alliteration: is a made up phrase with the repetition of the same initial sounds of words, for example - big, beautiful butterflies

Anagrams: are words made from the rearranging of letters from another word. For example: cat - act

Analogy:is a strategy for remembering how to spell words.

Antonym: word opposite to another in meaning. For example - cold/hot; light/dark

Articles: the words a, an and the are called articles. They are used in front of nouns. "A" and "an" are indefinite articles meaning any one of a group; and "the" is a definite article meaning a particular person, place or thing.

Blends: are letter clusters whereby you can hear the sound of each letter if pronounced slowly. For example "cricket" - you can hear the "c-r"

Clauses: are a group of words that contain a verb. They tell us about an action and the people or things involved.

Compound Words: words made up from two smaller words.

Compound sentences: are formed when two or more clauses are joined by conjunctive words.

Conjunctions: are joining words that join words, phrases and clauses, for example and, but, however etc

Consonants: are the letters of the alphabet other than the vowels - include a,b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z.

Contractions: are joined words with a letter or letters missing, an apostrophe is put in the place of the missing letters. For example do not - don't

Dependent Clauses: are clauses that consist of a verb but cannot stand alone as a sentence - because he ran.

Digraph:is a single sound represented by 2 letters. Example sh, th, ch.

Direct Speech: are the actual words spoken by someone. They are written with speech marks around them.

Four Roles of a Reader:

Code Breaker: the reader decodes or reads the visual information of the text - sounds, letters, words, punctuation, grammar, vocabulary.

Text Participant: the reader is concerned with understanding what the meaning of the text is - what is it trying to say?

Text User: they are concerned with the way they use the text in the here and now - what action should they take?

Text Analyst: are concerned with what they text is telling them - the position of the writer, opinions, bias etc

Grapheme:is a letter or group of letters used to make a single sound.

Guided Reading: is where a teacher takes a group of students and supports them with the reading of a text; teachers provide support and and reminds students of skills and strategies.

Homonym:is a word which has the same sound or the same spelling as another word but has a different meaning. For example: blue/blew

• Homophones:are words that sound the same but have different spellings. For example - ate/eight
• Homographs:are words that are spelt the same but have different meanings. For example jam (jam the sandwich filling or to jam something in a door)

Idiom: phrase or expression perculiar to a language - a colloquial metaphor - for example "to kick the bucket" means to die.

Independent Clauses: are a clause (group of words containing a verb) that can stand alone as a sentence.

Indirect speech: is another person's account of what was said, therefore no speech marks.

Irony: is a figure of speech whereby the real meaning is the opposite of what is intended. For example - a person saying "I'm not upset" when in reality their voice and body language say they are.

Metaphor: is figure of speech where language directly compares unrelated subjects. For example - grabbing the bull by its horns - metaphor for taking action.

Mnemonic:is a memory trigger or memory aid used to help us remember the spelling of a difficult word. Follow this link to a page full of different mnemonics.

Modelled Reading: is where a teacher gives a demonstration of what good readers know and do; the teacher will give the students the skills and strategies that they need to use.

Morphemes:are the smallest units of meaning in language - it could be a word or a part of a word.

Morphemic:this is a spelling strategy you can use that has to do with the meaning of words.

Nouns: are naming words - they give a name to people, places or things.

Common Nouns: are the names of ordinary/everyday things, people and places, for example - radio, brother, meat etc

Proper Nouns: are the names of particular people, places and things and have a capital letter.

Collective Nouns: are the names of groups of people or things - team.

Onomatopoeia: are words written as they sound, for example "hiss", "squelch"

Onset and Rime:are the ways that single syllable words are broken down into the beginning sounds or onset and the part containing the vowel and the final sound or rime. For example cat - "c" is the onset, and "at" is the rime.

Paragraphs: are one or more sentences written together on a single theme.

Personification: a form of speech that gives inanimate objects or things human traits and qualities. For example "the doll smiled serenly as she sat on the shelf.

Phonemes: are a set of similar sounds. For example all the "s" sounds

Phonetics: is to do with sounds and how they are made - it is also the spelling strategy used to write a letter or group of letters for a particular sound.

Phrases: are groups of words without a verb. An example would be "on the table".

Plural: is the form of a word that means there is more than one. For example: One dog, two dogs.

Prefix: are the letters added to the front of a word to change the meaning. For example "un" - unfamiliar

Prepositions: are words which tell about time and place, they are placed in front of nouns and pronouns.

Print Awareness: is the understanding that reading and writing represents ideas, knowledge and thoughts.

Pronouns: are words that can take the place of nouns, for example I, he, her, mine, they etc

Root Words:are words which have come from other languages and which are used in the english language forming the base of some of the words we use. For example - "aqua" meaning water - aquarium, aquamarine

Rhyme: words that have similar sounding endings.

Sentences: are sets of words making a complete statement. Usually begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

Similies: a figure of speech where one thing is compared to another - as red as an apple.

Split Infinitives: occur when an adverb is placed between the "to" and the verb. For example "The children wanted to slowly eat their ice-creams.

Statements: is a sentence that states a fact.

Suffix: the letters added to the end of a word, for example "ful" - eventful

Syllables: the units of sound in a word, every syllable has a vowel. We often break words into syllables to help with spelling. For example - education - ed-u-ca-tion.

Synonym: word or phrase meaning the same as another word. For example - giggle/laugh.

Verb Tense:Talks about when the action will take place.

Past Tense: where the action has already occurred.

Present Tense: where the action is taking place now.

Future Tense: When the action will happen in the future.

Verbs: are doing words or tell about the action of a sentence.

Vowels: are letters of the alphabet that are made without an audible stopping of breath - a,e,i,o,u

For more information on grammar, you can visit our grammar page, to see more information about parts of speech and punctuation.

If there are any other words that you would like included, please contact us via the Ask a Question page

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