What does minister mean?
Word: Minister
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Minister means a member of the government who is in charge of a department, such as health or education. In some churches, a minister is the person who leads the services.
Word origin: Comes from Latin minister, a servant or helper.
How do you spell minister?
Syllables: min - is - ter
Tricky part: The first two vowels are both i. Many students put an e in place of the second one, which gives minester.
Watch out for: minester, menister
Memory tip: A minister keeps an eye on the country, and the word keeps two i's, one in each of its first two beats.
Minister in a sentence
Example 1: The Chief Minister inaugurated the new bus depot on Monday.
Example 2: Each minister answered questions from members of the assembly.
Example 3: The education minister announced extra libraries for village schools.
Fun Fact
Latin minister, servant, was built on minus, less. Its opposite was magister, master, built on magis, more, and magister gave English the word master.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. parliment 2. comittee 3. constituancy 4. minister
a) a member of the government in charge of a department
b) the group of elected people who make a country's laws
c) an area whose voters elect one representative
d) a group of people chosen to plan or decide something
Show answer
a) a member of the government in charge of a department. Spot the slips: parliament hides an a after the i, constituency ends ency, and committee doubles both m and t.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
minnister
a) m
b) s
c) n
d) i
Show answer
c) n. Minnister doubles the n; minister has it once, in its first beat, min.
Word Makeup
Only one of these words takes the suffix ial to form a new word. Choose it.
ial
a) minister
b) driver
c) singer
d) farmer
Show answer
a) minister. Minister + ial gives ministerial, as in a ministerial meeting; there is no farmerial, singerial or driverial.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The ministar of tourism opened a new trekking route through the hills of Sikkim last week.
a) ministar
b) tourism
c) through
d) trekking
Show answer
a) ministar. The last beat is ter, as in register, so the word is minister.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. The Chief Minister leads the government of ____.
a) a school
b) a village panchayat
c) a state
d) a company
Show answer
c) a state
2. Before taking charge, a new minister in India must ____.
a) hold a degree in law
b) take an oath of office
c) pass a civil service exam
d) work first as a collector
Show answer
b) take an oath of office
