What does firmament mean?
Word: Firmament
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Firmament means a literary word for the sky, seen as a great arch or dome over the earth.
Synonyms: sky, vault
How do you spell firmament?
Syllables: fir - ma - ment
Tricky part: The middle a is not stressed, so it sounds like a weak uh and gets written as e or left out (firmement, firmment).
Watch out for: firmement, firmamant, fermament
Memory tip: To ancient eyes the sky looked like a firm dome: begin with firm, then the weak a that is so easy to lose.
Firmament in a sentence
Example 1: On a clear night in Ladakh, the firmament is crowded with stars.
Example 2: The poet compared the morning firmament to a sheet of blue silk.
Example 3: Fireworks lit up the firmament over the harbour on the night the new bridge opened.
Fun Fact
Ancient writers pictured the sky as a solid dome holding back the waters above. That is why the word contains firm: its Latin source meant a support, something made firm.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose its meaning:
1. metior 2. constelation 3. firmament 4. horizen
a) a group of stars that forms a pattern
b) the line where land or sea seems to meet the sky
c) the great arch of the sky above us
d) a piece of rock that glows as it burns up in the air
Show answer
c) the great arch of the sky above us. Constellation needs ll, horizon has an o before the n and meteor an e before the o, so firmament is the one to pick.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word firmament as used in the sentence:
The astronomer pointed her telescope towards a faint glow low in the eastern firmament.
a) heavens
b) highlands
c) oceans
d) valleys
Show answer
a) heavens. A telescope looks up into the firmament, the heavens above us.
Mingle-Mangle
Unscramble the jumbled word in the sentence and choose the correct word:
In the old story, a giant hung the sun and the moon in the tmeinfmar.
a) filament
b) firmament
c) fragment
d) ferment
Show answer
b) firmament. The jumble holds two m's; fragment, ferment and filament have only one each.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
From the hilltop camp in Spiti, the students lay on their mats and gazed up at the firmamint glittering with thousands of stars.
a) students
b) thousands
c) firmamint
d) glittering
Show answer
c) firmamint. The word ends in ment, as pavement and payment do.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Firmament is a word you are most likely to find in ____.
a) a recipe book for making soup
b) a printed railway timetable
c) a cricket match scorecard
d) a poem about the night sky
Show answer
d) a poem about the night sky
2. Which of these could you see in the firmament?
a) a coral reef
b) the evening star
c) a dry river bed
d) a buried fossil
Show answer
b) the evening star
