What does percolate mean?
Word: Percolate
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Percolate means to pass slowly through something that has tiny holes or gaps, as water does through soil.
Synonyms: filter
How do you spell percolate?
Syllables: per - co - late
Tricky part: The middle vowel is o, though in quick speech it sounds more like u. Pupils often write perculate because that syllable is so weak.
Watch out for: perculate, percalate
Memory tip: Cold water percolates slowly through the ground. Let the col of cold remind you of the vowel.
Percolate in a sentence
Example 1: Rainwater takes weeks to percolate down to the well in our village.
Example 2: Hot water percolates through the ground coffee and drips into the pot.
Example 3: Slowly, the news of the holiday began to percolate through the whole school.
Fun Fact
A percolator is a coffee pot that sends hot water up a tube and lets it trickle back through the ground beans. News and ideas can be said to do the same thing when they spread little by little from one person to the next.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Cookie
Choose the letters that complete the word:
p_rcol_te
a) e, e
b) u, e
c) u, a
d) e, a
Show answer
d) e, a. It starts like perfect and ends like calculate.
Mingle-Mangle
The jumbled word in the sentence hides a real word. Choose it:
Water must aeolcetpr through layers of sand and gravel before it reaches the tank under the garden.
a) permeate
b) populate
c) percolate
d) perforate
Show answer
c) percolate. Perforate has an f, permeate an m and populate no r, so the letters fit only one verb.
Spell-o-Spell
Read the four words. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. benevolent 2. mediocar 3. fastidious 4. percolate
a) very careful about small details
b) only average in quality, not very good
c) to trickle through a fine layer
d) kind, and eager to help other people
Show answer
b) only average in quality, not very good. Mediocre ends in cre, in the same way as acre.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word percolate as used in the sentence:
The monsoon showers percolate into the rocky hillside and feed the springs below.
a) evaporate
b) splash
c) seep
d) gush
Show answer
c) seep. Water that seeps makes a slow way through small openings.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Through which of these would water percolate most easily?
a) a solid steel plate
b) a sealed plastic bucket
c) a bed of coarse gravel
d) a sheet of thick glass
Show answer
c) a bed of coarse gravel
2. How can you tell that an idea is beginning to percolate through a school?
a) the whole school is told at the same moment
b) one pupil writes it down and forgets it
c) more classes slowly start to talk about it
d) the head teacher cancels it in a single day
Show answer
c) more classes slowly start to talk about it
