Year 2 — Vocabulary

Word relationships

Find synonyms (words that mean almost the same), find antonyms (words that mean the opposite), and use the words around a new word to guess what it means.

Back to Year 2

💡Understand

A SYNONYM means almost the same as another word (happy/glad). An ANTONYM means the opposite (happy/sad). If we don't know a word, we can look at the CONTEXT — the other words nearby — to guess its meaning.

“The enormous elephant was much bigger than the tiny mouse.”

'Enormous' and 'tiny' are antonyms — opposites! Even if we didn't know 'enormous', the word 'bigger' right after it gives us a context clue that it means very big.

🔍Spot it

Is this a synonym or an antonym?

Question 1

'Big' and 'large'

💡 'Big' and 'large' mean almost the same thing.

Question 2

'Fast' and 'slow'

💡 'Fast' and 'slow' mean the exact opposite.

Question 3

'Happy' and 'joyful'

💡 'Happy' and 'joyful' mean almost the same thing.

🧠Think about it

If a story says 'the ancient castle was crumbling and covered in dust', how could you guess what 'ancient' means, even without knowing the word before?

✍️Try it

Find the synonym or antonym.

What is a synonym for 'small'?

Question 1

Which word is a synonym for 'small'?

💡 Look for a word that means almost the same as 'small'.

📝Practise

Choose the synonym or antonym as asked.

Question 1

What is a synonym for 'happy'?

Question 2

What is an antonym for 'hot'?

Question 3

What is a synonym for 'quick'?

Question 4

In one word, what do we call a word that means the opposite of another word?

💡 It's one of the two key words in this lesson.

Question 5

What is an antonym for 'up'?

Question 6

What is a synonym for 'scared'?

🎯Apply

Read the passage, then answer the questions below.

The gigantic whale swam past, far bigger than the tiny fish nearby.

Question 1

What clue words help us guess that 'gigantic' means very big?

💡 Look at the words right after 'gigantic'.

Question 2

What is the antonym of 'gigantic' used in this sentence?

Question 3

What animal was described as 'tiny'?

💡 Look at what swims near the whale.

🏆Challenge

Can you think of a synonym AND an antonym for the word 'brave'?

🔄Review

A quick mastery check — 3 questions.

Question 1

What is a synonym for 'big'?

Question 2

What is an antonym for 'day'?

Question 3

How can nearby words help us guess a new word's meaning?

Want to practise building words from prefixes, suffixes and roots? Try the word-family builder →