What does peppermint mean?
Word: Peppermint
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Peppermint means a plant with a strong, cool taste and smell, or a sweet made with oil from that plant.
How do you spell peppermint?
Syllables: pep - per - mint
Tricky part: The p is doubled in the middle, so there are three p's in all. Children often write only two.
Watch out for: pepermint, peprmint
Memory tip: Count the p's on your fingers: one at the start, then two together. That makes three.
Peppermint in a sentence
Example 1: Grandpa keeps a tin of peppermints in his coat pocket.
Example 2: The toothpaste had a strong peppermint taste that made my mouth tingle.
Example 3: We grew peppermint in a pot on the balcony and added the leaves to lemonade.
Fun Fact
The cool feeling you get from peppermint comes from menthol, a natural substance in the leaves that makes the nerves sense cold even though nothing is cold at all.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
mipteprenp
a) peppermint
b) peppercorn
c) permanent
d) pepperoni
Show answer
a) peppermint. Pepperoni and peppercorn need an o, and permanent has an a and a single p.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Grandma stirred a little pepperment into the warm lemon tea.
a) pepperment
b) lemon
c) little
d) stirred
Show answer
a) pepperment. The last part is the herb word mint, spelt with an i.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) cinnamon
b) pepparmint
c) chocolate
d) caramel
Show answer
b) pepparmint. The middle sound is spelt er, so pepparmint has the wrong vowel before the r.
Word Makeup
Choose the correctly spelt compound word:
a) candyflos
b) buttermilck
c) peppermint
d) milkshaik
Show answer
c) peppermint. Milkshake ends in ake, buttermilk has no c before the k, and candyfloss ends in a double s.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Why do many toothpastes contain peppermint?
a) it leaves the mouth feeling fresh
b) it turns the paste bright red
c) it keeps the paste from drying
d) it makes the paste look shiny
Show answer
a) it leaves the mouth feeling fresh
2. Peppermint is most often added to ____.
a) soup and pickles
b) tea and chewing gum
c) bread and butter
d) rice and beans
Show answer
b) tea and chewing gum
