Basic Details
Word: Mansion
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A very large and grand house.
Synonyms: palace, villa, manor
Antonyms: hut, shack, cottage
Word origin: Comes from Latin mansio, 'a place to stay'.
How to Spell Mansion
Syllables: man - sion
Tricky part: The shun sound is spelt sion here, not tion, and there is no h.
Watch out for: mantion, manshion, mansoin
Memory tip: Mansion, pension and tension all end in sion straight after an n.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The old zamindar's mansion has forty rooms and a courtyard.
Example 2: The family restored the crumbling mansion and turned it into a heritage hotel.
Example 3: In the story, the children explore a deserted mansion on a hill.
Fun Fact
Roman roads had official rest stops called mansiones, where travellers and messengers could sleep and change horses.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Connection
Choose the word opposite in meaning to mansion as used in the sentence:
The film star lives in a seaside mansion with a garden of coconut palms.
a) hut
b) palace
c) manor
d) villa
Show answer
a) hut. A mansion is a huge grand house, a hut is a tiny simple one; palace, villa and manor are all grand.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. bunglow 2. palase 3. cottege 4. mansion
a) the official home of a king or queen
b) a small simple house, usually in the countryside
c) a house with only one storey
d) a very large and grand house
Show answer
d) a very large and grand house. Cottage ends in age, bungalow has an a after the g and palace ends in ace, so mansion is the one with no error.
Word Cookie
Fill in the missing letters:
man_i_n
a) c, o
b) t, o
c) s, o
d) s, a
Show answer
c) s, o. The ending is sion, so the blanks take s and o.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these would you most likely find in a mansion?
a) wheels underneath
b) a single small room
c) a thatched roof only
d) many large rooms
Show answer
d) many large rooms
2. The Latin word mansio meant ____.
a) a tall tower
b) a rich man
c) a place to stay
d) a garden
Show answer
c) a place to stay
