What does custodian mean?
Word: Custodian
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Custodian means a person who looks after and protects something valuable, such as a museum or an old building.
How do you spell custodian?
Syllables: cus - to - di - an
Tricky part: The ending is the weak spot. It runs quickly in speech, so students write custodien, custodion or custodean.
Watch out for: custodien, custodion, custodean
Memory tip: A custodian protects things much as a guardian does, and the two words finish in exactly the same way.
Custodian in a sentence
Example 1: The custodian of the fort showed us the old gate and the watchtower.
Example 2: Our grandmother is the custodian of the family's photo albums.
Example 3: A museum custodian checks the glass cases every morning before visitors arrive.
Fun Fact
In American schools a custodian is the person who cleans and looks after the building. In Britain that person is called a caretaker.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
custodian
a) keeper
b) visitor
c) stranger
d) borrower
Show answer
a) keeper. A keeper looks after something, just as the person in charge of a monument does.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
doucnisat
a) comedian
b) guardian
c) musician
d) custodian
Show answer
d) custodian. The jumble has one vowel each of a, i, o and u, and only one of these words uses exactly those.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The custadian of the old library opened the rare books room for our class.
a) opened
b) rare
c) library
d) custadian
Show answer
d) custadian. The vowel after the t is an o.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) archivest
b) custodian
c) curater
d) libarian
Show answer
b) custodian. Librarian keeps the r of library, curator ends in or, and archivist has an i before the st.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What would worry a museum custodian the most?
a) the price of a film ticket
b) traffic on a distant highway
c) the result of a cricket match
d) dampness reaching old manuscripts
Show answer
d) dampness reaching old manuscripts
2. If a family is called the custodian of an old recipe, it ____.
a) has only just invented it
b) keeps it safe for those who come later
c) plans to throw it away soon
d) sells it to the highest bidder
Show answer
b) keeps it safe for those who come later
