What does gaseous mean?
Word: Gaseous
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Gaseous means in the form of a gas, or made up of gas.
How do you spell gaseous?
Syllables: gas - e - ous
Tricky part: The e after the s is the letter to guard. Pupils miss it and write gasous or gasious.
Watch out for: gasous, gasious
Memory tip: Picture steam hissing out of a kettle with a long eee, and let that e follow the s.
Gaseous in a sentence
Example 1: Stars are huge gaseous balls that shine by their own light.
Example 2: The fizz in soda comes from gaseous carbon dioxide dissolved in the drink.
Example 3: Dry ice skips the liquid stage and turns straight into a gaseous state.
Fun Fact
Gaseous is built on a made-up word. The chemist Jan Baptist van Helmont coined gas in the 1600s, basing it on the Greek word chaos.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
g_seo_s
a) a, i
b) o, u
c) e, u
d) a, u
Show answer
d) a, u. The first vowel is the a of gas, and u comes last of the vowels.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
gasseous
a) g
b) s
c) a
d) o
Show answer
b) s. Unlike gasses, this adjective keeps a single s after the a.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
When the kettle boils, the water inside takes on a ugoaess form.
a) gorgeous
b) generous
c) gaseous
d) glorious
Show answer
c) gaseous. With no n, r or l among the letters, generous, gorgeous and glorious all drop out.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one of these words is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. condensasion 2. gaseous 3. evaparate 4. liqiud
a) to turn from a liquid into a vapour
b) the turning of vapour into drops of water
c) spreading freely to fill any space, like air
d) flowing freely, like water
Show answer
c) spreading freely to fill any space, like air. Liquid has u before i, evaporate an o after the p, and condensation a t before the ion.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. At room temperature, what would you find in a gaseous state?
a) nitrogen
b) candle wax
c) table salt
d) iron
Show answer
a) nitrogen
2. A gaseous planet such as Jupiter differs from Earth because it ____
a) has no moons in orbit around it
b) lies much closer to the Sun
c) has no firm surface to stand on
d) has stopped spinning on its axis
Show answer
c) has no firm surface to stand on
