Basic Details
Word: Windmill
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: A tall structure with large sails or blades that the wind turns. The turning power is used to grind grain, pump water or make electricity.
How to Spell Windmill
Syllables: wind - mill
Tricky part: The d of wind is hardly heard before the m, so many students write winmill. Mill also keeps its double l at the end.
Watch out for: winmill, windmil, windemill
Memory tip: Say it slowly as two words, wind and mill. The quiet d belongs to wind, and the mill grinds with two l's.
Idioms and Phrases
- tilting at windmills: fighting enemies or problems that are imaginary Example: "Arguing with a rival who is not even in the debate is tilting at windmills."
Usage Examples
Example 1: On the road to Kanyakumari we passed rows of tall white windmills.
Example 2: My little sister made a paper windmill and ran round the terrace to make it spin.
Example 3: The old windmill in the story ground flour for the whole village.
Fun Fact
At Kinderdijk in the Netherlands, 19 windmills built in the 1700s still stand. They were used to pump water off low-lying land, and the site is on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Makeup
Choose the incorrectly spelt compound word:
a) sunflower
b) bookcase
c) earthquake
d) windmil
Show answer
d) windmil. Mill always ends in a double l, so windmil is the one missing a letter.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
As our train crawled across the flat fields of Gujarat, my father pointed out a huge winmill whose blades were turning against the evening sky.
a) crawled
b) blades
c) pointed
d) winmill
Show answer
d) winmill. Wind keeps its d even when mill follows, though the d is hard to hear.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
The farmer used the old lmdniwil to pump water for his cattle.
a) mindful
b) windfall
c) windmill
d) landfill
Show answer
c) windmill. Count the i's: the jumble has two, and windmill is the only option that uses two.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these is a windmill NOT normally used for?
a) making electricity
b) freezing food
c) pumping water
d) grinding grain
Show answer
b) freezing food
2. What makes the sails of a windmill turn?
a) running water
b) moving air
c) a hand crank
d) a coal fire
Show answer
b) moving air
