Spell Bee Word: Elephant

Basic Details

Word: Elephant

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: A huge grey animal with a long trunk, big flapping ears and, often, two long tusks. Elephants live in Asia and Africa.

How to Spell Elephant

Syllables: el - e - phant

Tricky part: The f sound in the middle is spelt ph, as in phone. Children also write the e in the middle as i, but it is el-e-phant.

Watch out for: elefant, elephent, eliphant

Memory tip: Clap it out: el - e - phant. The trunk is a phone the elephant calls with, so the f sound is ph.

Idioms and Phrases

1. the elephant in the room: A big problem that everyone knows about but nobody talks about. Example: "The broken window was the elephant in the room at dinner."
2. white elephant: Something that costs a lot to keep but is of little use. Example: "The huge old car became a white elephant because it kept breaking down."

Usage Examples

Example 1: The elephant sprayed water with its trunk.

Example 2: We saw a baby elephant at the zoo in Mysuru.

Example 3: An elephant is much heavier than a car.

Fun Fact

An elephant's trunk has no bones in it. It is made of muscles, which is why it can bend in every direction.

Practise the CREST Way

Spell-o-Spell

Choose the correctly spelt word:

a) elefant
b) elephint
c) elephant
d) elephent

Mingle-Mangle

Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:

tanhpele

a) elephant
b) elepahnt
c) elehpant
d) elephnat

Word Cookie

Find the misspelt word in the sentence:

We gave the elefant a bunch of bananas.

a) bunch
b) bananas
c) gave
d) elefant

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which body part does an elephant use to pick up food?

a) its trunk
b) its tusks
c) its tail
d) its ears

2. An elephant is a very ____ animal.

a) large
b) thin
c) light
d) tiny