Discover how spelling works in only five minutes a week.

One Step Now Education April 4, 2025 amalgam What are your spelling bugaboos? Aluminum? Cinnamon? Accommodate? One of mine is amalgam, because in truth, I thought it was *amalgamam. I mean, that's how I said it. I was typing it in a document, and I got the red wavy line, so I decided to look it up. Meaning What is this word's meaning and how does the word function? According to the entry in the Collins Co-Build Dictionary, my favorite resource for student-friendly definitions, an amalgam is a...

One Step Now Education March 28, 2025 fossil I've been challenged several times on scientifically studying words with young students. If a first grader can understand complicated names for dinosaurs, why can't they understand the structure of the words they are encountering in their storybooks? So many of our students are into dinosaurs, I thought fossil might be good for a word study. Meaning What is this word's meaning and how does the word function? A fossil, according to the entry in the...

One Step Now Education March 21, 2025 reverie Sometimes similarly pronounced or spelled words can be a great prompt for an investigation. We look at homophones a good deal in this work. A recent situation made me think about the similarities between the words revelry and reverie. Let's see what we can discover as we attempt to untangle these two words. Meaning What is this word's meaning and how does the word function? The word revelry, if I consider the entry in the Collins dictionary, means...

One Step Now Education March 14, 2025 internecine read online and share link with friends Another phrase from Tim Alberta's "The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory" has prompted my curiosity: “vicious internecine fighting.” Many things about a word will prompt my curiosity. Sometimes I'm not exactly sure what the word means. Sometimes, the word seems to have an odd base. Sometimes I might wonder about a relationship to other familiar words or wonder about a word's language of origin. I try to...

One Step Now Education March 7, 2025 truculent In Tim Alberta's book, "The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory," he writes about a “raving truculent mess of a cattle call.” I'm familiar with the word truculent, but it's one of those familiar words that I'm not really sure what it means. Due to its pronunciation, I get curious about any similarities to truck. Surely there's not a relationship there? Join me as we discover how the pronunciation of a word might lead you astray. Meaning What is...

One Step Now Education February 28, 2025 meticulous If you'll indulge me again with a sentence from Fuschia Dunlop's history of Chinese food, "Invitation to a Banquet." "When Chinese specialists do roast meats, their methods tend to be meticulous and sophisticated." Meaning What is this word's meaning and how does the word function? The word meticulous is a familiar one to me. Some might say it is the opposite of disarray which we looked at previously. The Collins dictionary defines...