Spell Bee Word: Chlorophyll

What does chlorophyll mean?

Word: Chlorophyll

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: Chlorophyll means the green colouring in leaves and other plant parts that traps sunlight so the plant can make its own food.

Word origin: Greek khloros, pale green, and phyllon, leaf.

How do you spell chlorophyll?

Syllables: chlo - ro - phyll

Tricky part: Two sounds are spelt in the Greek way: ch says k and ph says f. The word ends in -phyll with a y and two l's.

Watch out for: clorophyll, chlorofill, klorophyll

Memory tip: Chlorophyll fills a leaf with green. The end even sounds like fill and keeps fill's double l, but it is dressed up as p-h-y-l-l.

Chlorophyll in a sentence

Example 1: Leaves look green because chlorophyll reflects green light.

Example 2: In autumn, maple leaves lose their chlorophyll and the red and yellow colours show through.

Example 3: Our science teacher pulled the chlorophyll out of spinach leaves using a solvent.

Fun Fact

The name was made up in 1817 by two French chemists, Pierre Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaime Caventou, who first separated the green substance from leaves.

Practise the CREST Way

Word Cookie

Find the extra letter in the word:

chlorrophyll

a) y
b) o
c) r
d) h

Spell-o-Spell

Choose the incorrectly spelt word:

a) carbohydrate
b) stomata
c) germination
d) chlorephyll

Mingle-Mangle

Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:

lhyorcplhol

a) chlorophyll
b) chlorinate
c) chloroform
d) chloride

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Chlorophyll helps a plant make food in the process called ____.

a) pollination
b) photosynthesis
c) respiration
d) transpiration

2. Inside a leaf cell, chlorophyll is kept in tiny parts called ____.

a) vacuoles
b) cell walls
c) chloroplasts
d) nuclei