Basic Details
Word: Laurel
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: An evergreen bush or small tree with smooth, shiny leaves. In ancient Greece and Rome a ring of its leaves was placed on the heads of winners, so laurels also means honours a person has won.
Word origin: Comes from Latin laurus, the bay tree, through Old French.
How to Spell Laurel
Syllables: lau - rel
Tricky part: The first vowel sound is spelt au, not o or or, and the word ends in el, not al or le.
Watch out for: lorel, laurle, lawrel
Memory tip: Laurel begins with the same four letters as the name Lauren: l-a-u-r. Swap the en for el and you have the plant.
Idioms and Phrases
- rest on your laurels: to be so pleased with a past success that you stop trying Example: "Our school won the quiz last year, but the coach told us not to rest on our laurels."
Usage Examples
Example 1: The garden outside the old bungalow in Shimla has a thick laurel hedge.
Example 2: In the painting, the Roman general wears a crown of laurel leaves.
Example 3: The cook dropped two dried bay laurel leaves into the pot of dal.
Fun Fact
At the ancient Pythian Games, held at Delphi in honour of the god Apollo, winners received a wreath of laurel, while winners at Olympia were given olive.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. lavendar 2. magnollia 3. laurel 4. jesmine
a) an evergreen bush whose leaves were made into crowns for winners
b) a climbing plant with white, strongly scented flowers
c) a plant with small purple flowers and a sweet smell
d) a tree with large, waxy white or pink flowers
Show answer
a) an evergreen bush whose leaves were made into crowns for winners. The three flower words each have one letter wrong (lavender ends in er, jasmine has an a, magnolia one l), which leaves laurel.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the word in the sentence and choose it:
The victorious general returned to Rome wearing a wreath of rulela leaves.
a) laurel
b) lateral
c) rural
d) literal
Show answer
a) laurel. The six letters r, u, l, e, l, a make laurel; literal and lateral would need a t, and rural is a letter short.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
laurrel
a) e
b) u
c) r
d) l
Show answer
c) r. Laurel has a single r between the u and the e.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A cricketer who rests on his laurels after one good season ____.
a) stops working hard to improve
b) moves to a new team at once
c) trains twice as hard as before
d) gives his prize to his coach
Show answer
a) stops working hard to improve
2. Which word best completes the sentence? The hedge of glossy ____ stayed green right through the winter.
a) daffodil
b) tulip
c) laurel
d) sunflower
Show answer
c) laurel
