Grade 5 Scholarship Examination key terms

A speech sound made with an open mouth passage, such as a, e, i, o, u; in Sinhala and Tamil, vowels combine with consonants to form syllables.

A speech sound made by partly or fully blocking airflow, such as k, m, s; consonants usually need a vowel to be pronounced clearly in a syllable.

A single unit of pronunciation containing one vowel sound, often with consonants around it; clapping the beats in a word helps count syllables.

A word that names a person, place, thing, animal, or idea, such as teacher, Colombo, book, or kindness; nouns can be common or proper.

A word that shows an action or state, such as run, eat, is, or sleep; the verb helps tell what the subject does or is.

A group of words that expresses a complete thought and usually has a subject and a verb, beginning with a capital letter and ending with punctuation.

Marks such as full stops, commas, question marks, and exclamation marks that help readers understand pauses, sentence endings, and tone in writing.

A word that has the same or very similar meaning as another word, such as big and large; using synonyms makes writing more varied.

A word that means the opposite of another word, such as hot and cold or begin and end; antonyms help show contrast in meaning.

A group of sentences about one main idea, usually starting on a new line and often having a topic sentence that tells what the paragraph is about.

The value of a digit based on its position in a number, such as the 4 in 342 standing for 4 tens or 40.

One of the ten number symbols from 0 to 9 used to write numbers; the position of a digit gives its place value.

A number that shows part of a whole, written with a numerator above a denominator, such as 3/4 meaning three parts out of four equal parts.

The top number in a fraction; it tells how many equal parts are being counted or taken, as in 3/5 where 3 is the numerator.

The bottom number in a fraction; it tells the total number of equal parts the whole is divided into, as in 3/5 where 5 is the denominator.

The distance around the outside edge of a flat shape; for a rectangle it equals twice the length plus twice the width.

The amount of flat surface inside a shape, measured in square units such as square centimetres; for a rectangle, length multiplied by width.

A single value that represents a group of numbers, found by adding all the numbers and dividing by how many numbers there are.

A way of writing a fraction or ratio as parts out of 100, shown with the % sign; 50% means 50 out of every 100.

The amount of turn between two lines that meet at a point, measured in degrees; a right angle is 90 degrees.

When a shape can be folded along a line so that both halves match exactly; the fold line is called the line of symmetry.

The process by which green plants use sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide to make food and release oxygen; it happens mainly in leaves.

The order in which living things feed on one another, starting with plants and ending with animals such as predators; arrows show the direction of energy.

The continuous movement of water between the sea, air, and land through evaporation, condensation, and rain; it keeps supplying fresh water.

The addition of harmful substances or energy to air, water, or land, which can damage health and the environment; examples include smoke, rubbish, and loud noise.

A selection of foods that gives the body the right amounts of energy, protein, vitamins, minerals, and fibre for good health.

The way living things obtain and use food substances for energy, growth, and repair; good nutrition supports health and learning.

Giving a preparation, often by injection, that helps the body build protection against a disease; it reduces the chance of serious illness.

A community of living things together with the non-living surroundings such as soil, water, and air, interacting as a system.

Materials and energy from nature that people use, such as water, soil, forests, minerals, and sunlight; some are renewable and some are not.

Collecting used materials such as paper, plastic, and metal and processing them so they can be used again, saving resources and reducing waste.

A drawing of an area seen from above, using symbols and a key to show places, roads, rivers, and other features; maps often include a scale.

An instrument with a magnetic needle that points to north, helping people find direction and follow a route on a map.

The way something moves or faces, such as north, south, east, or west; directions help describe location, route, and position on a map.

A line that shows events in the order they happened, often with dates; timelines help compare when things occurred and how much time passed.

A diagram using overlapping circles to sort and compare groups; things shared by both groups go in the overlapping part.

A comparison that shows how two pairs of things are related, such as hand is to glove as foot is to sock; analogies test reasoning.

A repeated or regular arrangement of shapes, numbers, colours, or events that follows a rule; finding the rule helps predict what comes next.