Basic Details
Word: Practical
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Sensible and useful in real situations, rather than only in ideas; good at dealing with everyday problems.
Synonyms: sensible, useful, handy, realistic
Antonyms: impractical, useless
How to Spell Practical
Syllables: prac - ti - cal
Tricky part: The ending is cal, not cle (practicle). The c before t is also left out by some students (pratical).
Watch out for: practicle, practikal, pracitcal, practicel
Memory tip: Take practice, drop its final e and add al: practic + al. If you practise something, you become practical at it.
Usage Examples
Example 1: Rubber boots are a practical choice for the rainy season.
Example 2: My aunt is very practical and always carries a torch and a spare battery.
Example 3: The science teacher gave us a practical way to test whether water is hard.
Fun Fact
Practical goes back to Greek praktikos, meaning fit for action, from a verb meaning to do.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Only one of these words takes the ending ity to make a noun. Choose it.
ity
a) practical
b) honest
c) hopeful
d) careful
Show answer
a) practical. Practical + ity gives practicality; careful, honest and hopeful do not take ity.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Nani gave us very practicle advice before the trek, telling us to pack light, carry dry socks and drink water every hour.
a) advice
b) practicle
c) trek
d) socks
Show answer
b) practicle. Adjectives like this one end in al, as in musical and logical, not in cle.
Word Connection
Choose the antonym of the word practical as used in the sentence:
A raincoat with a hood is a practical gift for someone who cycles to school.
a) useful
b) handy
c) useless
d) sensible
Show answer
c) useless. Sensible, handy and useful all praise the gift; useless says it is no good.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A practical person is most likely to ____.
a) talk only about faraway ideas
b) forget to plan anything at all
c) fix problems in simple, sensible ways
d) spend the whole day daydreaming
Show answer
c) fix problems in simple, sensible ways
2. In a school chemistry practical, students mostly ____.
a) play team games
b) listen to music
c) carry out experiments
d) write long essays
Show answer
c) carry out experiments
