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Antonyms
Right is an antonym of wrong.

Antonyms

Discover antonyms: opposite words like hot–cold and light–dark that make your KS1 sentences clearer, stronger, and more interesting.

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Fascinating Fact:

Light and dark antonyms help stories, like “bright room” vs “dark cave”.

In KS1 English, children learn antonyms to understand that words can have opposite meanings. Knowing opposites helps them choose better words, improve descriptions, and spot meaning changes in stories and sentences.

  • Antonym: A word that means the opposite of another word, like big and small.
  • Opposite: Two ideas or words that are completely different, such as hot and cold.
  • Vocabulary: All the words a person knows and uses when speaking, reading, and writing.
What is an antonym in KS1 English?

An antonym is a word that means the opposite of another word. For example, happy and sad, open and closed, day and night are antonym pairs.

How can I teach antonyms to KS1 children?

Use picture cards, simple word pairs, and story examples. Ask children to match opposites like big–small or loud–quiet and use them in short sentences.

Why are antonyms important for young learners?

Antonyms help children understand meanings more clearly, spot differences in texts, and choose stronger words when speaking and writing.

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1 .
'A light box.' Which word is opposite to 'light'?
empty
brown
lovely
heavy
Remember - we aren't describing the box, we are finding the opposite word to describe it.
2 .
'A long rope.' Which word is opposite to 'long'?
huge
short
massive
brown
If we were looking for words that were similar, we would be asking for synonyms.
3 .
'He is a good footballer.' Which word is opposite to 'good'?
average
ok
mediocre
bad
The other three words all mean similar things - they are all ways of saying average.
4 .
'A loud man.' Which word is opposite to 'loud'?
young
nice
noisy
quiet
The letters 'q' and 'u' are friends and are almost always next to each other.
5 .
'These children are rich.' Which word is opposite to 'rich'?
wealthy
poor
hungry
happy
Being rich isn't always about money; sometimes you can be rich with love.
6 .
'The soup was cold.' Which word is opposite to 'cold'?
hot
warm
mild
tasty
We need to pick the word that is the furthest away from 'cold'. 'Warm' is only mildly different, whereas 'hot' is the complete opposite.
7 .
'I love my new house.' Which word is opposite to 'new'?
old
refurbished
large
modern
The word 'refurbished' means redecorated or redesigned.
8 .
What is an antonym?
Two words that mean the same thing.
Two words that sound the same.
Two words that mean opposite things.
A doing word.
An antonym is a word that is the complete opposite to another word. The word 'cat' isn't an exact opposite of 'dog' even though they are completely different animals. An antonym needs to be the exact opposite.
9 .
'He is a very slow tortoise.' Which word is opposite to 'slow'?
greedy
fast
intelligent
steady
A group of tortoises is called a creep.
10 .
'I would like to buy a jumper.' Which word is opposite to 'buy'?
give
get
offer
sell
Buying and selling are opposite but without one, you can't have the other.
Author:  Finola Waller (MEd, Primary School Teacher & KS1 English Quiz Writer)

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