Basic Details
Word: Politics
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: The activities of governing a country, and the debates and contests between people and parties who want power.
Synonyms: government, public affairs
How to Spell Politics
Syllables: pol - i - tics
Tricky part: The ending is ics, as in statistics and physics, not iks or ix. There is only one l.
Watch out for: politiks, pollitics, polatics
Memory tip: Read it in three small parts: pol + it + ics. The ics is the same ending as in physics and economics.
Idioms and Phrases
- play politics: to act to gain an advantage for yourself rather than to do what is right Example: "The class monitor refused to play politics when choosing the team."
Usage Examples
Example 1: My uncle reads every article about politics in the morning paper.
Example 2: Many young people in India are now taking an interest in politics.
Example 3: We discussed school politics, like who should be the house captain.
Fun Fact
The Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's Parliament, has 543 seats, each filled by a member elected by the voters of one constituency.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Read the four words. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. politiks 2. statistics 3. economics 4. athletics
a) sports such as running, jumping and throwing
b) the science of collecting and studying numbers
c) the activities involved in governing a country
d) the study of money, trade and industry
Show answer
c) the activities involved in governing a country. All four end in the same sound, and only politiks writes it with ks instead of ics.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
After retiring from the army, the general entered sciltipo and stood for election.
a) politics
b) politeness
c) optics
d) policies
Show answer
a) politics. Policies needs an e, politeness is far too long and optics has no l, so politics is the answer.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
pollitics
a) t
b) l
c) o
d) c
Show answer
b) l. Like police and polite, this word begins pol with one l.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is a part of politics?
a) planting a garden
b) painting a wall
c) baking bread
d) holding an election
Show answer
d) holding an election
2. A person whose job is politics is called a ____.
a) politicant
b) politicer
c) politician
d) politicist
Show answer
c) politician
