What does humiliate mean?
Word: Humiliate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Humiliate means to make someone feel ashamed and small, often in front of other people.
Synonyms: embarrass, shame, disgrace, belittle
Antonyms: praise, respect
Word origin: Comes from a Latin verb meaning 'to bring low'.
How do you spell humiliate?
Syllables: hu - mil - i - ate
Tricky part: There is one m and one l, and students often drop the i after the l and write humilate.
Watch out for: humilate, humilliate, humileate
Memory tip: The i after the l stands tall, like a person getting up again after being made to feel small; leave it out and the word falls flat.
Humiliate in a sentence
Example 1: Losing 10-0 in the final humiliated the home team, but they trained harder the next season.
Example 2: He felt humiliated when he tripped on the stage during prize day.
Example 3: Good teachers correct mistakes kindly and never humiliate a pupil.
Fun Fact
In the 1530s humiliate simply meant to lower someone's rank or pride; the sense of making a person feel ashamed in front of others is first recorded in the 1700s.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word humiliate as used in the sentence:
The coach did not want to humiliate the boy who had dropped the easy catch.
a) tease
b) honour
c) scold
d) ignore
Show answer
b) honour. To honour someone is to show them respect, the reverse of making them feel small; teasing, scolding and ignoring could all leave the boy feeling worse.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The judges did not mean to ltuimahie the young singer when they stopped her song halfway.
a) imitate
b) militate
c) humiliate
d) eliminate
Show answer
c) humiliate. Imitate, militate and eliminate have no h or u, two letters the jumble clearly holds.
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. apologise 2. humiliate 3. complimant 4. criticise
a) to make someone feel foolish before others
b) to point out what is wrong with something
c) a polite remark that praises someone
d) to say that you are sorry for something
Show answer
c) a polite remark that praises someone. A compliment ends in ment, like payment, so complimant is the misspelt word.
Word Cookie
Insert the correct letters to form a word:
h_m_liate
a) u, e
b) o, i
c) u, u
d) u, i
Show answer
d) u, i. The word opens with hum, as in humble, and the vowel after the m is an i.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. After being humiliated, a person usually wants to ____.
a) thank the person warmly
b) hide their face and slip away
c) tell everyone the good news
d) sing a song on the stage
Show answer
b) hide their face and slip away
2. Which action would humiliate someone?
a) thanking them quietly for their help
b) sharing your lunch with them at break
c) mocking their mistake before the whole class
d) asking them to join your team for a game
Show answer
c) mocking their mistake before the whole class
