What does portcullis mean?
Word: Portcullis
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Portcullis means a strong, heavy gate of iron or wooden bars that can be lowered to close the entrance of a castle or fort.
Word origin: Came into English in the Middle Ages, when great stone castles were being built across Britain.
How do you spell portcullis?
Syllables: port - cul - lis
Tricky part: There is a double l in the middle: students write portculis.
Watch out for: portculis, porculis
Memory tip: Picture the double l as two iron bars of the gate sliding down side by side.
Portcullis in a sentence
Example 1: The guide showed us the grooves in the stone where the portcullis once slid up and down.
Example 2: In my storybook, the princess's pony trotted under the portcullis just before it came down for the night.
Example 3: The rusty portcullis creaked as the workers raised it for the tourists.
Fun Fact
A crowned portcullis is the badge of the UK Parliament, and it appeared on the British one-penny coin for many years.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell Spies
Choose the misspelt word/s in the given sentence:
The tourists watched the guide raise the old portcollis before they walked into the cobbled courtyard.
a) portcollis and cobbled
b) guide and courtyard
c) only portcollis
d) only courtyard
Show answer
c) only portcollis. The vowel after portc is u, not o; cobbled and courtyard are correct.
Spellacadabra
Choose the misspelt word:
a) clematis
b) crisis
c) portculliss
d) metropolis
Show answer
c) portculliss. Portcullis ends in a single s.
Jumble Tumble
Which option has letters that you can rearrange to form the name of a part of a castle?
a) taetrur
b) tnorasib
c) tomarpar
d) ucrlitlops
Show answer
d) ucrlitlops. Ucrlitlops makes portcullis; the others each have one extra letter, so they cannot make turret, rampart or bastion.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option:
Portcullis comes from ___ and it means ___. 1. Greek 2. French 3. German 4. Arabic 5. sliding door 6. iron ladder 7. stone bridge 8. wooden roof
a) 4/8
b) 1/6
c) 2/5
d) 3/7
Show answer
c) 2/5. It comes from Old French porte coleice, a door that slides.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A portcullis works most like ____.
a) a swing gate in a garden
b) a sliding wardrobe door
c) a rolling shutter on a shop front
d) a revolving door
Show answer
c) a rolling shutter on a shop front
2. What else might you find at the same castle entrance?
a) a drawbridge
b) a runway
c) an escalator
d) a platform
Show answer
a) a drawbridge
