What does cocoa mean?
Word: Cocoa
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Cocoa means a brown powder made from roasted cacao seeds, used to make chocolate, or the hot drink made from it.
How do you spell cocoa?
Syllables: co - coa
Tricky part: The word ends in -oa, and the a is silent. Leave it out and you have written coco, which is not the spelling of the drink.
Watch out for: cocoe, coacoa, kocoa
Memory tip: Picture the silent a as the steam rising from a mug of cocoa: you cannot hear it, but it is always there at the end.
Cocoa in a sentence
Example 1: On cold mornings in Shimla we drink a mug of hot cocoa before school.
Example 2: The recipe asks for two spoons of cocoa and a cup of sugar.
Example 3: Cocoa beans are dried in the sun on large mats.
Fun Fact
Cocoa and coconut are not related, even though they look alike. Cocoa is a changed spelling of cacao, while coconut comes from a Portuguese word.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Champ
Read the statements and choose the correct option:
1. Cocoa is a powder used to make hot chocolate. 2. A cashue is a curved nut. 3. Vanila is a flavour that comes from the pods of an orchid.
a) both 1 and 3
b) only 1
c) both 1 and 2
d) all three are true
Show answer
b) only 1. Cashew ends in -ew and vanilla has a double l, so only statement 1 is free of mistakes.
Word Tally
You get 3 marks for each correctly spelt word in the list. How many marks will you get?
cocoa, biscut, sandwich, chocolate, coffie, toffee
a) 12
b) 9
c) 6
d) 15
Show answer
a) 12. Biscut and coffie are wrong (biscuit, coffee); four correct words at 3 marks each make 12.
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
oacoc
a) a brown powder from roasted seeds, used in chocolate
b) a pale grain ground into flour for bread
c) a hard nut with white flesh and sweet water inside
d) a thick sweet syrup made by bees
Show answer
a) a brown powder from roasted seeds, used in chocolate. Oacoc can only become cocoa; the other meanings belong to coconut, honey and wheat.
Sound Check
In which word is 'oa' pronounced differently?
a) toast
b) broad
c) cocoa
d) boat
Show answer
b) broad. Broad says 'aw'; in cocoa, boat and toast the oa is the long o of go.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is NOT made from cocoa?
a) chocolate biscuits
b) hot chocolate
c) chocolate cake
d) coffee
Show answer
d) coffee
2. The cacao tree, which gives us cocoa, first grew wild in ___.
a) Central and South America
b) southern India
c) western Australia
d) eastern China
Show answer
a) Central and South America
