Reduce screen time App access to 1,000’s of quizzes Happy parents Find out more

Use your special detective skills to see if you can spot the patterns!

Word Patterns (Categories, Odd One Out)

This English and Literacy quiz introduces KS1 children to synonyms, the idea of spotting word patterns and identifying categories for groups of words. This will enhance their vocabulary and complement any Verbal Reasoning practice. Finding the odd one out will also add another dimension to their literacy and English skills.

We can group words by alphabet, categories or synonyms (words that mean the same thing). This quiz will ask you to spot the pattern and find the word that is the odd one out.

To see a larger image, click on the picture.

'Angry, furious, annoyed.' Which answer can join this group?

happy

displeased

friendly

fast

This group shows words that mean the same thing, they are synonyms. Each word tells us that the character is an angry person.

'Shark, whale, salmon.' Which answer can join this group?

donkeys

tortoise

snails

jellyfish

This is a group of sea creatures. Tortoises are different to turtles because tortoises live on land whereas turtles spend most of their life in the sea.

'Octopus, octagonal, spiders.' Which word could join this group?

October

worm

octave

fly

If the word 'spider' wasn't in the list, we could say it was words beginning with 'oct'. However, it is a group made of words that involve the number 8. Octopuses have 8 legs, octagons have 8 sides, spiders have 8 legs and an octave is a series of 8 musical notes.

'Egypt, Italy, England.' Which answer can join this group?

London

Paris

Madrid

Spain

This is a group of countries. The other answers are all capital cities; London is the capital of England, Paris is the capital of France and Madrid is the capital of Spain.

'Mice, monkeys, marmalade.' Which answer can join this group?

apes

matches

squirrels

sloths

The pattern between the words is that they all begin with 'm'. If they didn't all begin with 'm', then the other three answers could go in a category for animals that climb trees.

'Amazon, banana, China.' Which word belongs in this group?

carrots

crown

donkey

red

These words are in alphabetical order. The first letter of each word starts with A, then B, then C, then D etc.

'Red, yellow, pink, blue.' Which answer could join this group?

dog

purple

house

chair

These are all colours. We could organise colours further, by writing just the prime colours: red, blue and yellow.

'Slippery, shower, soap.' Which word could join this group?

conditioner

shampoo

water

clean

These are all words to do with having a shower but the words in the question have another pattern: they all begin with the letter 's'.

'Pigs, cows, sheep.' Which answer could join this list?

sharks

ants

chickens

birds

These are all farmyard animals. Naturally there will be ants and birds in a farm but they aren't considered as animals that are kept purely in a farm as they are everywhere and are free to leave.

10.

'Cabbage, broccoli, carrots.' Which word can join this group?