Literacy vocabulary for grades 3-5.

1. Reading Vocabulary

2.  Main Idea- What the paragraph or selection is
mainly about.
 Prediction- What you think will happen at the end
of a selection
 Root Word- A word without added beginnings or
endings; example rewrite- write is the root word.
 Prefix- A letter or a group of letters that comes
at the beginning of a word and its own meaning;
example: -able, en
 Context Clues- Clues in a selection that help the
reader figure out the meaning of a word or words
 Author’s Purpose- The reason an author writes
something

3.  Autobiography- A story written about a person’s
life by that person
 Biography- A story written about a person’s life by
someone else
 Idiom- Figure of speech; example “ I have a fog
in my throat”
 Thesaurus- A reference book containing synonyms
and antonyms
 Synonym- A word having the same meaning as
another word
 Antonym- A word having the opposite meaning as
another word
 Parentheses- A pair of marks used to add
information to a sentence

4.  Define- To give the meaning of a word
 Advantage- The positive reasons for something
 Disadvantage- The negative reasons for something
Point of view- The character who is telling the story
or the opinion of the storyteller
Theme- The lesson learned or the moral of a
narrative
Plot- The main story in a narrative or drama
Climax- The turning point in a plot
Conflict- The problem between characters or events
in a plot
Resolution- The way the conflict is solved within a
story’s plot

5.  Outcome- They way the events turn out
 Atlas- A book of maps
 Almanac- A reference book published yearly, with
tables of facts and information on many subjects
 Guide Words- The words that appear at the top of
each page of a reference book, showing the first
and last word on the page
 Glossary- A list of definitions in the back of a book
 Encyclopedia- A reference book containing detailed
articles on a subject