What does payroll mean?
Word: Payroll
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Payroll means a list of the people a company or school pays wages to, with how much each one gets; it can also mean the total amount it pays them.
How do you spell payroll?
Syllables: pay - roll
Tricky part: The word ends in a double l. Pupils often write only one, or add an e and get payrole.
Watch out for: payrol, payrole
Memory tip: Two l's close the word, the same pair that ends scroll and stroll.
Payroll in a sentence
Example 1: The bakery added two new bakers to its payroll before the holiday season.
Example 2: Mr Iyer in the office checks the payroll on the last day of every month.
Example 3: The cricket club has twelve coaches on its payroll.
Fun Fact
Long before computers, clerks wrote out a firm's payroll by hand in a big ledger; a roll call at school uses the same old sense of a written list of names.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Only one of these compound words is spelt correctly. Choose it:
a) bookeeper
b) storroom
c) leterbox
d) payroll
Show answer
d) payroll. Bookkeeper has double o and double k, storeroom keeps the e of store and letterbox has two t's.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
alplyro
a) parlour
b) playroom
c) payroll
d) payload
Show answer
c) payroll. Payload, parlour and playroom each have only one l.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) payroll
b) pension
c) budget
d) accountent
Show answer
d) accountent. An accountant works with accounts, so the word ends in ant.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
The office adds each new teacher to the payroll by the fifth of the month, so nobody waits long for a salery.
a) teacher
b) fifth
c) salery
d) payroll
Show answer
c) salery. Salary has two a's and no e.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which part of a company usually prepares the payroll each month?
a) the accounts office
b) the delivery team
c) the reception desk
d) the canteen
Show answer
a) the accounts office
2. If a factory's payroll grows larger, the most likely reason is that it has ____.
a) hired more workers
b) moved to a smaller building
c) sold its machines
d) closed for repairs
Show answer
a) hired more workers
