Compound Words — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Which word is a compound word?
A) garden
B) scarecrow
C) pillow
D) letter
Scarecrow can be broken into two real words, scare and crow, which is the rule for a compound word. The other choices do not split into two smaller words that mean something on their own.
2. What two words make up waterfall?
A) water + all
B) wat + fall
C) water + fall
D) watery + fall
The first half of waterfall is water, which you can drink or swim in, and the second half is fall, which means to drop down. Put together, they describe water that drops down over rocks.
3. Which word is NOT a compound word?
A) notebook
B) windmill
C) blanket
D) beehive
Blanket cannot be cut into two real words, so it is not a compound word. The other answer choices can each be split into two smaller words that each have their own meaning.
4. Fire + fly = ?
A) firefox
B) firefly
C) fireman
D) firewood
Joining fire and fly creates firefly, the small insect that glows like a tiny flame as it flies through summer evenings. The compound word captures both how it looks and what it does.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. Scare + crow = scarecrow.
Scare plus crow makes scarecrow, the straw figure farmers place in fields to scare away crows. Both smaller words describe its exact purpose.
2. The compound word notebook is made from note and book.
A notebook is literally a book for writing notes, so the second word is book. The two small words stack together to name the whole object.
3. Black + bird = blackbird.
Joining black and bird makes blackbird, the name given to birds with dark black feathers. The first word tells the color and the second tells what kind of animal it is.
4. The first part of windmill is wind.
Windmill starts with the word wind, followed by mill. A mill needs wind blowing against its blades to turn, which is why that smaller word comes first.
5. Hay + stack = haystack.
Adding hay and stack forms haystack, which is a big stack of hay piled up on a farm. The compound word spells out what it is in plain language.