What does biodiversity mean?
Word: Biodiversity
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Biodiversity means the variety of all the plants, animals and other living things found in a place or on Earth.
How do you spell biodiversity?
Syllables: bi - o - di - ver - si - ty
Tricky part: The s sound near the end is written with s, not c: biodivercity is the usual slip.
Watch out for: biodivercity, biodiversaty
Memory tip: Diverse means of many kinds; the end of biodiversity keeps that s, so it is never city.
Biodiversity in a sentence
Example 1: The Western Ghats are famous for their biodiversity.
Example 2: Wetlands such as Chilika Lake support a huge amount of biodiversity.
Example 3: Our school garden has more biodiversity since we planted wildflowers.
Fun Fact
India is one of 17 countries called megadiverse; together they hold most of the world's known kinds of plants and animals.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) ecosystem
b) byodiversity
c) environment
d) habitat
Show answer
b) byodiversity. Bio, meaning life, is spelt with an i, as in biology.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
biodiversitey
a) e
b) y
c) t
d) i
Show answer
a) e. The word ends in ty, with no e before the y.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tsibyovdirei
a) biodiversity
b) diversify
c) university
d) adversity
Show answer
a) biodiversity. Only biodiversity uses the b and the o; university, adversity and diversify have neither.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The forest is rich in biodiversity, with hundreds of kinds of butterflys.
a) biodiversity
b) hundreds
c) butterflys
d) forest
Show answer
c) butterflys. Butterfly changes y to ies in the plural: butterflies.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which place has the highest biodiversity?
a) a car park in a busy city
b) a rainforest full of plants and animals
c) a sandy desert with few plants
d) a frozen lake in winter
Show answer
b) a rainforest full of plants and animals
2. Which of these harms biodiversity?
a) planting native trees
b) cutting down forests
c) protecting wetlands
d) cleaning rivers
Show answer
b) cutting down forests
