What does discovery mean?
Word: Discovery
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Discovery means the act of coming across something, or learning something, that nobody knew before. It can also mean the new thing that has come to light.
Synonyms: breakthrough
How do you spell discovery?
Syllables: dis - cov - er - y
Tricky part: The middle of the word is said quickly, so the er tends to get lost or turn into ar. Discovry and discovary are both wrong.
Watch out for: discovry, discovary
Memory tip: Think of the verb discover, which you already know: its er stays whole in the noun, however quickly you say it.
Discovery in a sentence
Example 1: An old letter from her great-grandfather, tucked inside a book, was an exciting discovery for Sofia.
Example 2: Our class made a happy discovery: a pair of sparrows nesting behind the notice board.
Example 3: Every science lesson seems to end with a small discovery about how the world works.
Fun Fact
Discovery has been a proud name for explorers' craft: Captain Scott set sail for Antarctica in 1901 on a ship called Discovery, and NASA later gave the same name to one of its space shuttles.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the suffix that completes the word:
discover____
a) ey
b) y
c) ie
d) ee
Show answer
b) y. A plain y turns the verb into the noun, the way recover becomes recovery.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
evosrdciy
a) discovery
b) discourse
c) dissolve
d) delivery
Show answer
a) discovery. Only one of these has a y and a c together with one s: delivery has an l, discourse a u and dissolve a second s.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word: discovery
a) finding
b) search
c) reward
d) loss
Show answer
a) finding. A search is the looking; the finding is what you end up with, and that is the discovery.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
A young scientist made the dicovery of a tiny new frog species in the forests of the Western Ghats.
a) species
b) dicovery
c) scientist
d) forests
Show answer
b) dicovery. Discovery opens with dis, the same start as disappear and dislike.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Jonah made a discovery in his grandmother's old trunk. What happened?
a) He saw something there for the first time.
b) He lost something he had kept for years.
c) He hid something away from his family.
d) He mended something that had been broken.
Show answer
a) He saw something there for the first time.
2. Which of these is a discovery rather than an invention?
a) writing a new computer game
b) spotting a new comet in the night sky
c) designing a new kind of bicycle
d) building the first ever telephone
Show answer
b) spotting a new comet in the night sky
