Recommended children's booklists sorted by age or topic

Home > Books > Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids

Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids

Book Synopsis

The English language is made up of words from different places, events, and periods of time. Each of those words has an exciting story to tell us about where, when, how, and why they came about. Once Upon a Word is packed with easy-to-understand definitions and awesome word origin stories. With this dictionary for kids, you can understand the history and meaning of English words, improve your vocabulary and spelling, and learn to play with language.

Explore how weird words like gnome, fun words like zombie, and common words like caterpillar came to exist. Discover why some words sound funnier than others (like cackle, sizzle, and twang) and why some groups of words start with the same few letters (like hydrate, hydrogen, and fire hydrant). In this dictionary for kids, there’s a whole world of English words to uncover!

Our Review Panel says...

One for all future linguistics geeks including adults, this is a great book for introducing the incredible stories hidden inside every word. Offering so much more than just a definition and an etymology each entry tells the story of how words came to mean what they do in an engaging and easily understandable style. Explanations of roots, prefixes and suffixes help support language skills and build vocabulary along the way.

This book is available on these booklists:

Once Upon a Word: A Word-Origin Dictionary for Kids

Book Details

Format:
Publisher:
Publish Date:

Booklists you might also like...

Subscribe to our newsletter

Your Review

Stone Girl Bone Girl

review

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Year group(s) the book is most suitable for:

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Does the book contain anything that teachers would wish to know about before recommending in class (strong language, sensitive topics etc.)?

Would you recommend the book for use in primary schools?

yes

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Curriculum links (if relevant)

Any other comments

Any other comments