Monday 1 August 2016

PORTMANTEAU WORDS

Everybody is talking about Brexit, but do you know what kind of word it is?

It's a portmanteau word - that is, it is made up of elements of two or more words. [Brexit is made up of British and exit, for instance, and refers to Britain's planned exit from the European Union.]  These are different from compound nouns, which are made up of two or more complete words, for example, sitting room.

Can you say which words have been used to form the following portmanteau words? You'll find the answers at the end of the post:


  1. brunch
  2. email
  3. malware
  4. Paralympics
  5. biopic
  6. pob
  7. telemarketing
  8. vitamin
  9. Brangelina
  10. Eurasia
Highlight the space below to see the answers:

  1. breakfast, lunch
  2. electronic, mail
  3. malicious, software
  4. Parallel, Olympics [they are held at around the same time as, and are connected with, the Olympic Games]
  5. biography, picture [a film biography]
  6. political, bob [a hairstyle favoured by female politicians]
  7. telephone, marketing
  8. vital, mineral
  9. Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie
  10. Europe, Asia

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