What does dromedary mean?
Word: Dromedary
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Dromedary means a camel with one hump, found in the hot deserts of North Africa, the Middle East and north-west India.
How do you spell dromedary?
Syllables: drom - e - dar - y
Tricky part: The second vowel is a weak, quick sound spelt e. Because the sound gives no clue, children often put an a or an o after drom.
Watch out for: dromidary, dromadary, drommedary
Memory tip: Link it to aerodrome: both carry drome, from a Greek word about running. A dromedary is a running camel, so write drome before anything else.
Dromedary in a sentence
Example 1: At the Pushkar fair, traders lead hundreds of dromedaries across the sand.
Example 2: Our guide in Jaisalmer said his dromedary, Moti, was twelve years old.
Example 3: After a long trek, a thirsty dromedary can drink a huge amount of water in a few minutes.
Fun Fact
The name goes back to the Greek dromas, meaning running. It was first used for camels bred as fast riding animals.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
dromedarry
a) e
b) a
c) r
d) d
Show answer
c) r. One r is enough before the final y.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
A dromedery can carry heavy loads across the Thar Desert for days.
a) carry
b) dromedery
c) Desert
d) heavy
Show answer
b) dromedery. The vowel before the r near the end is a, so dromedery is the slip.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) mirrage
b) dromedary
c) camoflage
d) carravan
Show answer
b) dromedary. Camouflage has ou, mirage has one r and caravan has one r; only the camel word is right.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
aymrdeord
a) dictionary
b) dormitory
c) dromedary
d) drudgery
Show answer
c) dromedary. Dormitory and dictionary both need a t and an i, and drudgery needs a u and a g.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Where in India are you most likely to see a dromedary at work?
a) pulling carts in the Thar Desert
b) climbing the snowy peaks of Sikkim
c) swimming in the backwaters of Kerala
d) grazing in the tea gardens of Assam
Show answer
a) pulling carts in the Thar Desert
2. A dromedary can go for days without drinking. Why is this useful to it?
a) it eats only food that is wet
b) it sleeps through the whole summer
c) it is too tall to reach a river
d) water is hard to find where it lives
Show answer
d) water is hard to find where it lives
