What does antiseptic mean?
Word: Antiseptic
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Antiseptic means a liquid or cream that kills germs on the skin, used to stop a cut or graze from becoming infected.
How do you spell antiseptic?
Syllables: an - ti - sep - tic
Tricky part: The middle is sep, with a plain s and an e. Students who hear it quickly write antisaptic or anticeptic.
Watch out for: antisaptic, anticeptic
Memory tip: Imagine a nurse saying "sep, sep" each time she dabs a cut: that middle sound is spelt s-e-p, with no c anywhere near it.
Antiseptic in a sentence
Example 1: Keep a bottle of antiseptic in the first-aid box at home.
Example 2: Papa cleaned Noah's scraped elbow with antiseptic before covering it.
Example 3: This hand gel works as an antiseptic and kills germs on your hands.
Fun Fact
In the 1860s the British surgeon Joseph Lister began cleaning his tools and bandages with carbolic acid, one of the first antiseptics, and far fewer of his patients picked up germs.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the prefix that completes the word:
____septic
a) antti
b) anty
c) anti
d) ante
Show answer
c) anti. This prefix means against: the cream works against germs.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) plastar
b) ointmant
c) infecsion
d) antiseptic
Show answer
d) antiseptic. Plaster ends in er, ointment has an e before nt and infection is spelt with ct, which leaves antiseptic.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
antiseptick
a) c
b) t
c) k
d) p
Show answer
c) k. The word ends with a plain c, the same as plastic and magic.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The school nurse keeps antiseptic, cotton wool and bandeges in a white cabinet.
a) nurse
b) cabinet
c) bandeges
d) antiseptic
Show answer
c) bandeges. Bandage has an a after the d: band, then age.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. When would you most likely use an antiseptic?
a) to clean muddy football boots
b) to soften stiff paintbrushes
c) to help a plant grow taller
d) on a fresh cut or graze
Show answer
d) on a fresh cut or graze
2. An antiseptic works by ____.
a) getting rid of the germs on a cut
b) drying the cut with hot air
c) hardening the skin around a cut
d) cooling the skin near the cut
Show answer
a) getting rid of the germs on a cut
