What does plaque mean?
Word: Plaque
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Plaque means a flat piece of metal, stone or wood with writing on it, usually fixed to a wall in memory of a person or an event.
How do you spell plaque?
Syllables: plaque
Tricky part: The k sound at the end is spelt in the French way, with que, so pupils who write what they hear put k, ck or ke.
Watch out for: plak, plack, plake
Memory tip: Imagine a queen unveiling it: this word ends with the three letters that begin queen.
Plaque in a sentence
Example 1: A small plaque on the railing records the year the bridge was opened.
Example 2: Our team brought home a wooden plaque from the district quiz.
Example 3: Visitors stopped to read the plaque outside the old observatory.
Fun Fact
London's blue plaques, first put up in the 1860s, mark buildings where famous people lived. One marks a house where the young Mahatma Gandhi stayed as a law student.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Rearrange the jumbled letters in the sentence to form the right word:
The mayor unveiled a brass pleaqu at the gate of the new children's park.
a) plaque
b) placard
c) plaster
d) opaque
Show answer
a) plaque. Opaque looks close but needs an o, which these letters lack.
Spell-o-Spell
Only one word in the list is spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of that word.
1. banquit 2. plaque 3. monumint 4. mosaik
a) a large structure built to remember a great person or event
b) a picture made from tiny coloured pieces of stone or glass
c) a grand formal meal for many guests
d) an engraved panel put up to honour someone
Show answer
d) an engraved panel put up to honour someone. Banquet ends in et, mosaic ends in c and monument ends in ent.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
plaaque
a) q
b) u
c) a
d) l
Show answer
c) a. The vowel after the l appears only once.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
On Founders' Day the head boy read out the words on the new brass plaque outside the school libary before the whole assembly.
a) brass
b) assembly
c) plaque
d) libary
Show answer
d) libary. Say the word with care and you hear an r after the b: library.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. What would you most expect to read on a plaque at a science museum?
a) the founder's name and the opening date
b) today's ticket prices and cafe menu
c) a map of the bus routes to the gate
d) a list of rules for school visits
Show answer
a) the founder's name and the opening date
2. A school wants a lasting thank-you for a retiring head teacher. Which gift would be a plaque?
a) a printed album of school photographs
b) a bronze panel engraved with her name
c) a framed painting of the school gate
d) a hand-knitted woollen winter shawl
Show answer
b) a bronze panel engraved with her name
