What does cowardice mean?
Word: Cowardice
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Cowardice means a lack of bravery; behaviour that shows a person is too afraid to face danger or do what is right.
Synonyms: fearfulness, timidity, faint-heartedness
Antonyms: bravery, valour
How do you spell cowardice?
Syllables: cow - ard - ice
Tricky part: The ending is ice, not ise or ess. Many students hear the end as iss and write cowardise.
Watch out for: cowardise, cowardess, cowadice
Memory tip: Cowardice ends like justice and notice: ice, never ise.
Cowardice in a sentence
Example 1: Running away and leaving his friend behind was an act of cowardice.
Example 2: Owning up to a broken window is not cowardice, even if your voice shakes.
Example 3: The story's hero is accused of cowardice but later proves everyone wrong.
Fun Fact
The word is thought to come from Old French, perhaps linked to the Latin word for tail, like a scared animal with its tail between its legs.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word: cowardice
a) weakness
b) courage
c) panic
d) shyness
Show answer
b) courage. Courage is the strength to face danger; panic, shyness and weakness all sit closer to cowardice.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) cowardice
b) adolesence
c) seperate
d) occured
Show answer
a) cowardice. Adolescence needs sc, separate has par in the middle, and occurred doubles both its c and its r.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
cirdeaowc
a) cowardly
b) cowardice
c) crowded
d) cordial
Show answer
b) cowardice. Cordial and crowded have no v, and cowardly ends in ly; only cowardice takes all nine letters.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
c_w_rdice
a) a, a
b) o, e
c) u, e
d) o, a
Show answer
d) o, a. Say cow and then ard: the first gap takes o and the second takes a.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these shows cowardice?
a) saying no to a dare to jump off a wall
b) feeling nervous before the school play
c) letting a friend take the blame for your mistake
d) refusing to swim in a flooded river
Show answer
c) letting a friend take the blame for your mistake
2. Pick the sentence where cowardice is used the right way.
a) She ran with great cowardice and won the race easily.
b) The cowardice puppy hid under the bed during the storm.
c) He cowardiced away from the spider in the bathroom.
d) It was cowardice to stay quiet when the new girl was left out.
Show answer
d) It was cowardice to stay quiet when the new girl was left out.
