What does hosiery mean?
Word: Hosiery
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Hosiery means socks, stockings and tights, the word used for them in shops.
How do you spell hosiery?
Syllables: ho - si - er - y
Tricky part: The z sound in the middle is spelt with an s. Pupils often trust their ears and write a z.
Watch out for: hoziery, hoziary
Memory tip: Hose is an old word for stockings, and hosiery keeps the s of hose.
Hosiery in a sentence
Example 1: The hosiery section is right beside the school uniforms.
Example 2: My uncle runs a small hosiery business from the ground floor of our building.
Example 3: The shop's hosiery shelves were full of thick woollen socks for winter.
Fun Fact
The knitting frame, a machine for making stockings, was invented near Nottingham in England by William Lee in 1589, and the area later became a great centre of hosiery.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters to complete the word:
h_s_ery
a) u, i
b) o, e
c) a, i
d) o, i
Show answer
d) o, i. The first vowel is a long o, and a light i follows it.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Every winter my grandmother takes a bus to the old market, where a friendly shopkeeper keeps the best woollen hosierry on a shelf behind his counter.
a) hosierry
b) shopkeeper
c) woollen
d) grandmother
Show answer
a) hosierry. The ending is ery, as in grocery.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The seoriyh counter on the second floor stays busy all through the cold months.
a) hosiery
b) history
c) heroism
d) hostile
Show answer
a) hosiery. The jumble has a y and an e, but no t or m, which rules out the others.
Spell-o-Spell
Three words in the list are spelt correctly and one is misspelt. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word.
1. hosiery 2. drapery 3. millinary 4. haberdashery
a) hats, or the making and selling of hats
b) items such as socks sold in a shop
c) cloth hanging in loose folds
d) small items for sewing, such as buttons and thread
Show answer
a) hats, or the making and selling of hats. Millinery has an e before its final letters, so the a is the slip.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A department store sign reads Hosiery. Which item would you look for there?
a) a white cotton shirt
b) a pack of knee socks
c) a warm woollen scarf
d) a brown leather belt
Show answer
b) a pack of knee socks
2. Hose in the old sense covered which part of the body?
a) the head and neck
b) the chest and back
c) the arms and hands
d) the legs and feet
Show answer
d) the legs and feet
