What does brainstorm mean?
Word: Brainstorm
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Brainstorm means to think of many ideas quickly, often with a group, before choosing the best one. As a noun, a brainstorm is a meeting where people do this.
How do you spell brainstorm?
Syllables: brain - storm
Tricky part: It is one word, with no space or hyphen in the middle. At the end the r comes before the m: brainstrom is a very common slip.
Watch out for: brainstrom, brain storm, brainsterm
Memory tip: At the very end, write the sounds in the order you hear them: the r first, then the m, never the other way round.
Brainstorm in a sentence
Example 1: Our group had to brainstorm names for the class magazine.
Example 2: Before writing the essay, brainstorm a few ideas in your notebook.
Example 3: The team held a quick brainstorm to plan the school fair stall.
Fun Fact
An American advertising man, Alex Osborn, made brainstorming popular in the 1940s and 1950s. His rule was that nobody should criticise an idea while the group was still thinking.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
br_inst_rm
a) a, u
b) a, o
c) e, o
d) i, o
Show answer
b) a, o. The first gap sits inside the ai of brain; the second is the single o of storm.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
rmsbiantor
a) brainwave
b) brainstorm
c) snowstorm
d) rainstorm
Show answer
b) brainstorm. Rainstorm and snowstorm have no b, and brainwave needs a w and a v; the ten letters give brainstorm.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) imagenation
b) discusion
c) sugestion
d) brainstorm
Show answer
d) brainstorm. Brainstorm is two plain words joined; the others are each missing or changing a letter.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. When you brainstorm, you ____.
a) learn a poem by heart
b) think of lots of ideas
c) copy notes from the board
d) check answers for mistakes
Show answer
b) think of lots of ideas
2. In which sentence is brainstorm used as a noun?
a) I will brainstorm with Meera.
b) Let us brainstorm after the break.
c) They brainstorm every Monday.
d) The brainstorm gave us twenty ideas.
Show answer
d) The brainstorm gave us twenty ideas.
