Synonyms | Year 7 | Grasp English

💡Understand

A synonym is a word that means roughly the same as another word. Very few synonyms are perfectly identical, though — most carry slightly different shades of meaning, formality, or connotation, which means the 'best' synonym always depends on context. Using synonyms well isn't just about avoiding repeating the same word; it's about choosing the word that most precisely fits what you're trying to say.

“Instead of writing 'the film was good' three times in one paragraph, a writer might use good, excellent, and impressive.”

These three synonyms aren't identical — 'excellent' is stronger than 'good', and 'impressive' focuses specifically on how the film affected the viewer. Choosing between them lets a writer be both more varied AND more precise.

🔍Spot it

Which word is NOT a close synonym for the others in the group?

Question 1

happy, joyful, cheerful, furious

💡 'Furious' means extremely angry — the opposite of the positive feeling shared by the other three.

Question 2

quiet, silent, hushed, enormous

💡 'Enormous' relates to size, not sound — it doesn't belong with the others.

Question 3

begin, start, commence, finish

💡 'Finish' means to end something, the opposite of beginning it.

🧠Think about it

'Walk', 'stroll', 'stride' and 'trudge' are all synonyms meaning to move on foot. Why might a writer choose 'trudge' instead of 'walk' to describe a character heading home after a long, tiring day?

✍️Try it

Choose the synonym that best fits the context.

After weeks of training, the athlete's performance in the final race was ___.

Question 1

Which synonym for 'good' best fits this sentence about a highly trained athlete's performance?

💡 Think about which word matches the effort described (weeks of training) — a strong result deserves a strong word.

📝Practise

Choose the best synonym to replace the underlined word in each context.

Question 1

"The storm was very bad." Which synonym for 'bad' is most powerful here?

Question 2

"She was very tired after the exam." Which synonym for 'tired' suggests complete exhaustion?

Question 3

"The teacher gave a big amount of homework." Which formal synonym for 'big' fits an academic context?

Question 4

Give one synonym for the word 'happy'.

💡 Any close synonym works.

Question 5

"He said the answer quietly." Which synonym for 'said' best fits 'quietly'?

Question 6

"The city was very crowded." Which synonym best fits an extremely crowded city?

🎯Apply

Read the passage, then answer the questions below.

The old bridge was damaged. Every plank creaked, and several were damaged so badly that stepping on them felt dangerous. Engineers who inspected it were damaged in their confidence too — the whole structure seemed to be one strong gust away from collapse.

Question 1

The passage repeats "damaged" three times. Which synonym would best replace the second use ("several were damaged so badly")?

💡 The context is about planks that feel dangerous to step on — think decay.

Question 2

Which synonym would best replace the third use ("engineers... were damaged in their confidence")?

💡 This isn't physical damage — it's about the engineers' confidence weakening.

Question 3

Rewriting for variety matters because repeating the same word (like 'damaged' three times) can make writing feel...

💡 Think about the effect on the reader of hearing the exact same word again and again.

🏆Challenge

Explain in two or three sentences why simply swapping every repeated word for ANY synonym isn't always good writing advice — using the 'damaged' passage above as your example.

🔄Review

A quick mastery check — 3 questions.

Question 1

A synonym is a word that...

Question 2

Why is choosing the right synonym about more than just avoiding repetition?

Question 3

Which is the strongest synonym for 'said' if a character is speaking angrily?

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