What does scavenge mean?
Word: Scavenge
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Scavenge means to search through things that others have thrown away, looking for something useful.
Synonyms: forage
Word origin: Formed in the 1600s from the older noun scavenger, which came from Anglo-Norman French.
How do you spell scavenge?
Syllables: scav - enge
Tricky part: The vowel before the ng is weak: it can sound like an i or an a, so students write scavinge or scavange.
Watch out for: scavinge, scavange, scavenj
Memory tip: Count the vowels when you check it: a, e, e. The first e comes straight after the v.
Scavenge in a sentence
Example 1: Crows scavenge for scraps near the bins behind the canteen.
Example 2: After the fair, the children scavenged the ground for dropped ribbons to make a kite tail.
Example 3: We had to scavenge spare buttons from old shirts to finish the costumes.
Fun Fact
A scavenger hunt is a party game in which teams race to collect a list of odd items, and it has nothing to do with rubbish.
Practise the CREST Way
Spellacadabra
Choose the correct option to make a meaningful word:
___avenge
a) sk
b) st
c) sh
d) sc
Show answer
d) sc. The hard opening sound is written as it is in scarf and scatter.
Back to the Roots
Choose the correct option to fill the blank:
The noun scavenger first named an official who collected ___.
a) letters for kings
b) fish from rivers
c) water for towns
d) fees from traders
Show answer
d) fees from traders. It came from an old word for inspecting goods, and only much later was it used for people picking through waste.
Word Puzzle
Match each word with its synonym:
1. scavenge 2. salvage 3. savour a. enjoy b. rummage c. rescue
a) 1-c, 2-b, 3-a
b) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
c) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
d) 1-a, 2-c, 3-b
Show answer
c) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a. To scavenge is to rummage, to salvage is to rescue, and to savour is to enjoy.
Spell Spies
Choose the pair which has a spelling error:
a) survive : survivour
b) engrave : engraver
c) explore : explorer
d) scavenge : scavenger
Show answer
a) survive : survivour. A survivor ends in or, with no u.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A team scavenging for parts to repair its robot would probably look ___.
a) in a brand-new showroom
b) through boxes of old machines
c) in the school prize cupboard
d) on the pages of a catalogue
Show answer
b) through boxes of old machines
2. Scavenging suits people who dislike ___ useful things.
a) mending
b) sharing
c) wasting
d) counting
Show answer
c) wasting
