What does cardamom mean?
Word: Cardamom
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Cardamom means a spice made from the small seeds of a plant of the ginger family, used to flavour both sweet and savoury dishes.
Word origin: From Latin and, before that, Greek, where the name blended the words for cress and another spice plant.
How do you spell cardamom?
Syllables: car - da - mom
Tricky part: Every vowel is an a or an o, so the middle a is not an e (cardemom).
Watch out for: cardemom, cardimom, cardammom
Memory tip: Think 'a, a, o': the vowels come in that order, with no e anywhere.
Cardamom in a sentence
Example 1: Mum crushed two pods of cardamom into the boiling milk for rice pudding.
Example 2: The pilaf smelled of cardamom, cloves and fried onions.
Example 3: At the spice market in Kochi, Neel bought a small bag of green cardamom for his mother.
Fun Fact
Green cardamom is native to the forests of the Western Ghats in southern India, and the Cardamom Hills of Kerala are named after it.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) fenugreek
b) turmeric
c) asafoetida
d) kardamom
Show answer
d) kardamom. Cardamom starts with c, the same hard c as in coriander and cinnamon.
Word Puzzle
Match the words with the correct options:
1. cardamom 2. saffron 3. tamarind a. a sour brown fruit pulp used in chutneys b. red-orange threads from a crocus flower, used to colour food c. a spice sold as small green or black pods
a) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
b) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
c) 1-c, 2-b, 3-a
d) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
Show answer
c) 1-c, 2-b, 3-a. The seeds are cardamom, the red threads are saffron, and the sour pulp is tamarind.
Word Champ
In which option are the given words arranged in alphabetical order?
1. cardamom 2. cardigan 3. cardboard 4. cardinal
a) 3124
b) 1342
c) 1324
d) 1234
Show answer
c) 1324. All four begin card; then a comes before b, and cardigan comes before cardinal because g comes before n.
Jumble Tumble
Which option has letters that you can rearrange to form the name of a spice?
a) remcurt
b) greekfun
c) nimonac
d) ordcmmaa
Show answer
d) ordcmmaa. One set holds exactly the letters of cardamom; each of the others is a letter short of cinnamon, turmeric or fenugreek.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which drink often has cardamom in it?
a) coconut water
b) orange juice
c) spiced tea
d) lemonade
Show answer
c) spiced tea
2. Cardamom is sold either as whole pods or as ___.
a) pressed flowers
b) ground powder
c) fresh leaves
d) dried roots
Show answer
b) ground powder
