Animal Adjectives Activity - the suffix ine

Adjectives are words used to describe or modify nouns. They give the reader more information about a noun.

Here is a list of adjectives that are related to animals.

1. Next to each adjective - write the animal which it refers to.

Wiktionary or other online dictionaries and thesauri can help you.

2. Write a sentence using the adjective.

Example: Delphine - related to dolphins.
On cloudy days, it was difficult to see the delphine colored boat bobbing on the bay's choppy waters.

You should have noticed that each animal adjective ended with the suffix ine.
The suffix ine is used to form many words that mean “similar to”, “resembling”, “like”, or “characterized by”.

4. Make some guesses about the meanings of these words, based on what you know about the suffix ine.

a. What is a heroine?

b. Is it flattering to be described as asinine?

c. What does medicine mean?

d. Which of these objects is best described as crystalline? a dog | a snowy hillside | a car

5. Every year new words are invented.
Example: wiki (wiki) noun - A collaborative Web site that can be edited by anyone.

[From Hawaiian wiki (quick). First citation of the word in English is from
1995, when programmer Ward Cunningham used it in naming his new software
WikiWikiWeb.] The Wordsmith.org December 2000.

Become a Wordsmith.
Fire up your imagination and invent 3 more animal related adjectives. Explain what each one means.

Example: chiroptine - bat.

The chiroptine shape of Bram Stoker's erratically swaying entry lamp caused many of his guests to duck in alarm.

1.

2.

3.

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