What does vertebrate mean?
Word: Vertebrate
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Vertebrate means an animal that has a backbone, such as a fish, frog, snake, bird or mammal.
Antonyms: invertebrate
How do you spell vertebrate?
Syllables: ver - te - brate
Tricky part: The vowel after the t is e, not i or a: students who hear ver-ti-brate or ver-ta-brate write the wrong one.
Watch out for: vertibrate, vertabrate
Memory tip: A vertebrate has a vertebral column, its backbone. Both words begin verte, with an e straight after the t.
Vertebrate in a sentence
Example 1: A frog is a vertebrate, but an earthworm is not.
Example 2: In biology we sorted picture cards into vertebrates and invertebrates.
Example 3: Fish were among the earliest vertebrates on Earth.
Fun Fact
Vertebrates are only a small slice of the animal world. Most known animal species, including all insects, spiders and snails, have no backbone at all.
Practise the CREST Way
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
tbreeavetr
a) vertebrae
b) vertebrate
c) reverberate
d) vertical
Show answer
b) vertebrate. Vertebrae is one letter short, reverberate has no second t, and vertical needs a c, an i and an l.
Word Cookie
Find the extra letter in the word:
verteberate
a) t
b) e
c) b
d) r
Show answer
b) e. There is no vowel between the b and the r.
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) skeleton
b) cartilage
c) ligament
d) vertebrait
Show answer
d) vertebrait. The word ends in ate, not ait; skeleton, cartilage and ligament are all spelt correctly.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our science teacher showed us the skeleton of a large vertebrate at the natural history musium.
a) skeleton
b) vertebrate
c) musium
d) teacher
Show answer
c) musium. Museum ends in eum, not ium.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these animals is NOT a vertebrate?
a) octopus
b) penguin
c) tortoise
d) salamander
Show answer
a) octopus
2. Scientists sort vertebrates into a few main groups. Which of these is one of them?
a) molluscs
b) insects
c) crustaceans
d) amphibians
Show answer
d) amphibians
