What does platelet mean?
Word: Platelet
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Platelet means a tiny disc-shaped fragment in the blood that helps seal a small cut.
Word origin: Formed in English in the late 1800s from plate.
How do you spell platelet?
Syllables: plate - let
Tricky part: Students leave out the silent e after the t and write platlet, because the word is said in two quick beats and nothing in the sound asks for that letter.
Watch out for: platlet, plattelet, pletelet
Memory tip: Picture a tiny dinner plate floating in the blood. However small it gets, that plate still keeps its silent e.
Platelet in a sentence
Example 1: Under the microscope, each platelet looked like a faint speck beside the red cells.
Example 2: Nandini used silver sequins to show every platelet on her science fair model of blood.
Example 3: Our biology textbook says that a single drop of blood holds millions of platelets.
Fun Fact
A platelet has no nucleus, unlike most cells in the body, and it lasts only about a week to ten days before new ones take over.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Champ
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
plate___
a) lat
b) lit
c) let
d) lot
Show answer
c) let. Booklet and droplet use the same small-thing ending.
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
tleaptle
a) a tiny body in the bloodstream that gathers wherever a vessel is damaged
b) a soft organ near the stomach that filters and stores some blood
c) a thin tube with valves that carries blood back towards the heart
d) the clear yellowish liquid in which all the blood cells float along
Show answer
a) a tiny body in the bloodstream that gathers wherever a vessel is damaged. The letters make platelet; the other three describe plasma, a vein and the spleen.
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) capilary
b) artery
c) corpuscle
d) platelet
Show answer
a) capilary. The smallest blood vessels are capillaries, and the singular also needs a double l.
Sound Check
In which word is 'ate' pronounced differently?
a) stately
b) climate
c) lately
d) platelet
Show answer
b) climate. Climate closes on a soft, quick sound; the others say the name of the letter a.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Platelets reach a small scratch on your arm within seconds. What happens next?
a) sweat washes the scratch quite clean
b) new skin covers it all at once
c) extra oxygen reaches the whole arm
d) sticky clumps form at the scratch
Show answer
d) sticky clumps form at the scratch
2. Where does the body make most of its platelets?
a) in the lungs
b) in the kidneys
c) in the stomach lining
d) in the bone marrow
Show answer
d) in the bone marrow
