Can You Answer These Grade Five Vocabulary Questions?

Daniel Yetman

Image: Noel Hendrickson / Photodisc / Getty Images

About This Quiz

The human brain is funny. Sometimes you can remember your locker combination from middle school, but you can't remember what you ate two days ago. There are a few reasons why you may have trouble recalling old information. 

The first reason is called memory interference, and it happens when you try to remember two pieces of information that are similar to one another. For example, if you try to remember the combination of two locks at the same time, you may get the numbers jumbled in your head. Even if you learn one combination in 1986 and try to learn a second combination 20 years later on a similar lock, you may effectively knock the first set of numbers out of your long-term memory. 

A second reason why you may have trouble recalling old information is because you never fully learned it in the first place (Maybe you slept through most of your English classes).

How much do you remember about the fifth grade? Can you remember your teacher's name? Who you sat next to? Who you were crushing on? How about the meaning of these 35 words?

No matter if you're in the sixth grade or in your sixth generation of life, you're never going to have perfect retention of new information. Start this test now to see how much you actually remember from the fifth grade. 

Another word for ridiculous is what?

When did you learn the meaning of the word absurd? Even if you're confident about its meaning now, remember there was a time in your life when this word was unfamiliar to you.

Somebody who is a member of your family is known as your ______?

Your brother, uncle, and sister are all your kin. How often do you use this word in your day to day life? Usually it's used in a formal situation like on official legal documents. You'll probably see it when your are filling out customs forms when you cross the border.

Which word means the opposite of something that is true ______?

A myth also refers to a traditional story that's been passed through generations of people. Myths don't have to be thousands of years old and from Greece or Rome. Even the stories people told in your high school about a kid whose pants fell down in class is a type of urban myth.

"Many people ______ chocolate regularly."

It's thought that a lot of cravings are based on nutrients that the human body needs. For example, craving candy can be a sign that your body wants quick energy and knows that candy is a high-caloric food.

When you turn on a light, you do this to the room.

When you flick on a light, you illuminate the room. The word illuminate comes from the Latin word luminare, which means to light up. You can also use the word illuminate metaphorically as in "You illuminated the room with your great idea"

The OPPOSITE of murky is ______.

You probably come across the word vivid quite often in your daily life. The word vivid means very strong/bright, or it can also refer to something that seems lifelike. Synonyms include clear, fresh, and vibrant.

Which of the following words means the OPPOSITE of insecure?

Confidence is a trait that many of us desire. Often, confidence is shown through body language in ways that we don't realize we're doing. For example, avoiding eye contact and looking down are signs of low confidence.

Which of these words is most similar to the word queen?

The word monarch refers to a person who controls a kingdom. Queen Elizabeth is an example of a monarch. These days, many countries have done away with monarchic systems.

Which of the following words is OPPOSITE to desert?

If you're lost in the desert, your life can depend on finding an oasis. Don't confuse the word desert with another similar word, dessert. Remember that dessert has two helpings of the letter S.

Which of the following does a mean person probably not have?

Compassion for other people, or empathy, is something that we teach children from a young age. If we didn't feel compassionate toward other people, we would all be sociopaths acting in our best interest with nobody else's feeling considered.

Finish the following sentence: "If the dog doesn't get food, it will ______."

To perish is another way to say to die. It can also be used with food when it's reached its expiration date. You better eat the tomatoes in your fridge before they perish. The dog perished because it didn't get enough food.

Which word means the main character in a story?

The protagonist is another word that means the main character in a story. The protagonist of "The Lord of The Rings" is Frodo. The protagonist of "The Wizard of Oz" is Dorothy. The protagonist of "Forrest Gump" is, well, Forrest Gump!

______ means to scare somebody so badly that they can't move.

If you're a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, you may be familiar with the spell Petrificus Totalus. The spell does exactly what you would expect. It petrifies that victim totally.

Which of the following means the same as eatable?

The word edible is often used in reference to mushrooms to differentiate them from inedible or poisonous mushrooms. You definitely don't want to mix up the word edible and inedible if it means eating something potentially poisonous.

Which of the following means the OPPOSITE of improve?

If things are already going badly and they get worse, the situation is exacerbated. For example, buying a dog when you're having trouble paying off your credit card debt would exacerbate your financial problems.

Which word refers to a syllable at the beginning of a word that changes the word's meaning?

A prefix is syllable that comes at the beginning of a word that changes the meaning. In the word prefix, the prefix 'pre' changes the meaning of fix. A suffix is a syllable that comes at the end of a word.

Which of the following words is most similar to amplify?

You've probably ridden an escalator a few times in your life. It should be no surprise that the word escalate looks similar. When you escalate a situation, the situation rises in intensity. When you ride an escalator, you rise in space.

Which of the following is the OPPOSITE of tiny?

Minuscule, micro and nano all refer to things that are tiny. When talking about units of measurement, do you know which one is smaller between micro and nano? The word nanometer refers to a unit of measurement a thousand times smaller than one meter.

"Ryan, your writing is so messy. It's _____"

The two words ineligible and illegible look similar at a glance. However, if you break them down and say them syllable by syllable, the difference becomes clearer. Illegible means messy while ineligible means you're not eligible for something.

To move to a country is to ______.

Don't get the two words immigrate and emigrate mixed up. To immigrate is to enter a new country while emigrant has the opposite meaning. So if you're a Canadian who moved to the USA, you emigrated from Canada to immigrate into America.

Which of these words has the closest meaning to calm and relaxed?

If you have a natural cool and calm demeanour, you'll appear nonchalant to anybody watching. Interestingly, nonchalant is not the opposite of chalant. By itself, chalant isn't an English word.

Fill in the blank with one of the following words below: "Don't stand under the ______ sun without wearing sunscreen.

The word harsh has several different meanings. Similar words include severe, rough or jarring. If you've ever stood under the sun at midday in the middle of the Nevada desert, you'll understand the meaning of harsh sunlight.

To follow somebody's orders is to ______.

To comply means to do what is asked of you without putting up a fight. The opposite of a compliant person is a stubborn person. Being compliant may be a positive or negative trait depending on who is doing the ordering.

Which word means to overthrow power?

The word revolt and revolution come from the same root. Both words conjure the image of toppling walls and statues. History is filled with revolutionists who fought again tyrannies and in the sake of freedom.

To return back to normal is to ____

You may have to revert the settings on your phone or TV if they get changed. The prefix 'Re' means to do again. Vert by itself doesn't have any meaning in English, although it's the French word for green.

A line going up and down is _____.

The two words vertical and horizontal can be confusing if English isn't your first language. Even if English is your first language, you may have to pause before saying one of them, in the same way counter-clockwise and clockwise can be confusing.

To walk in a slow manner is to _____

If you're in a rush, you're jogging, gallivanting, skedaddling or trucking along. However, if you're walking at your leisure, you're sauntering. You may have been sauntering already today without knowing the word.

Which of the following means the OPPOSITE of cowardly?

Being heroic is synonymous with being brave in the face of danger. You may immediately think of a super hero, but there's plenty of real world examples of heroes in the news every day.

You _____ by digging under the ground

Don't get the word escalate mixed up with the word excavate. Escalate means to get higher while excavate means to dig through the ground. A vehicle built for digging is called an excavator.

Which of the following words has the closest meaning to the word rare?

If you're walking through the desert by yourself, you better save your water because it's scarce. In economics, when things are scarce, they're usually in high demand. Would you pay more for a pair of jeans that are unique or that you could get in any city in the country?

Somebody with poor manners also has poor _____

Proper courtesy varies between countries. In Japan, bowing is a common sign of respect. However, in North America a handshake usually has a similar meaning. If you bowed to your boss in an office in Calgary, he might give you a strange look.

If you know most of something, you know the ____

How often do you use the word gist in day-to-day speech? It has a fairly informal connotation. You likely say it more often than write it out. It's not the kind of word that has the formality to fit an essay.

Jerry Seinfeld _____ a lot of young comedians.

To influence somebody is to change their behaviour. Throughout our lives, we have people who influence us both positively and negatively. Who has been the biggest influence on your life?

Which one of the following has a meaning closest to the OPPOSITE of enjoy?

Tolerate can have several different definitions. It can mean to be able to endure something without negative effects. It can also mean to accept something even though you don't like it. What's something in your life that you tolerate?

Which of the following words has a meaning closest to archaic?

Obsolete is a word that's used often in the technology industry. It seems like every year or two years a new type of phone or tablet is created, which replaces the older models. It won't be long before we're talking about the iPhone 20.

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