What does gingerbread mean?
Word: Gingerbread
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Gingerbread means a soft cake or crisp biscuit made with treacle or honey and a warm spice, often cut into the shape of a little person.
How do you spell gingerbread?
Syllables: gin - ger - bread
Tricky part: Both g's are soft and said like j, yet neither is written with a j. Using j for either of them is the common slip.
Watch out for: jinjerbread, ginjerbread
Memory tip: A gentle giant and a giraffe share a plate of it: every g in that line sounds like j, and so does each g in this treat.
Gingerbread in a sentence
Example 1: Last December, our neighbours gave us a box of gingerbread shaped like stars.
Example 2: Tara iced a smiling face on her gingerbread man with white icing.
Example 3: Our school canteen sold gingerbread biscuits at the winter fair.
Fun Fact
Gingerbread has been baked in England for hundreds of years, and gingerbread men are still a favourite treat at fairs and parties.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) cheezecake
b) pankake
c) gingerbread
d) popkorn
Show answer
c) gingerbread. Pancake and popcorn both use a c for the k sound, and cheesecake has an s in cheese.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
drabeinggre
a) bargained
b) gingerbread
c) gingerly
d) breadboard
Show answer
b) gingerbread. Gingerly has an l and a y, breadboard has an o, and bargained has just one g; none uses these eleven letters.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct pair of letters to form a word:
gingerbr_a_
a) a, d
b) i, d
c) e, t
d) e, d
Show answer
d) e, d. The last part is the everyday word for a loaf, spelt with ea and ending in d.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) porridge
b) gingarbread
c) biscuit
d) marmalade
Show answer
b) gingarbread. After the second g the vowel is an e, so that beat reads ger and not gar.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. In which shop would you find gingerbread for sale?
a) a bakery
b) a chemist
c) a shoe shop
d) a garage
Show answer
a) a bakery
2. Children building a gingerbread house would mostly need ____.
a) bricks and cement
b) biscuit walls and icing
c) planks and nails
d) paper and glue
Show answer
b) biscuit walls and icing
