Vocabulary Words
Lesson 10
Diminutive Suffixes
Bassinet
• Noun
• A basketlike bed for a baby
• The newborn baby lay sleeping in the wicker
bassinet.
Booklet
• Noun
• A small, bound pamphlet
• Liz studied the booklet thoroughly and had no
trouble understanding the procedure.
Circlet
• Noun
• A little circle; a small, circular ornament
• The necklace contained a circlet of diamonds.
Corpuscles
• Noun
• Living cells capable of moving about in a liquid
• Blood contains both red and white corpuscles.
Dinette
• Noun
• A nook, usually off of the kitchen, used for
informal meals
• Because we have a dinette, we seldom use our
formal dining room.
Drizzle
• Noun
• A fine, misty rain
• We finished our softball game despite the
drizzle.
Duckling
• Noun
• A young duck
• The newly-hatched duckling was covered with
fluffy down instead of feathers.
Gauntlet
• Noun
• A protective glove; a glove worn with
medieval armor
• The knight threw down his gauntlet as a
challenge.
Globule
• Noun
• A small globe or ball; a drop
• The science class watched as the teacher
dropped a globule of mercury into the
solution.
Gosling
• Noun
• A young goose
• The gosling appeared awkward on land but
was quite graceful in the water.
Kitchenette
• Noun
• A small kitchen
• Since my family planned to stay at the shore
for two weeks, we rented a room with a
kitchenette.
Majuscule
• Noun
• Writing that uses capital letters
• Early Greek was written in majuscule because
the language had no lowercase letters.
Minuscule
• Adjective
• Very small
• The type in this book is so minuscule that I
need a magnifying glass to read it.
Molecule
• Noun
• The smallest particle of a substance containing
one or more atoms.
• Each molecule of water contains two atoms of
hydrogen and one atom of oxygen.
Nozzle
• Noun
• A short tube with a taper to speed up or direct
a flow of fluid
• The gardener adjusted the nozzle and sprayed
the plants with a fine mist.
Particle
• Noun
• A very small quantity
• The room was so clean that not one particle of
dust could be found.
Princeling
• Noun
• A prince of minor status
• The commands issued by the princeling were
often scoffed at.
Stripling
• Noun
• An adolescent youth
• William is just a stripling and does not know
the ways of the world.
Triolet
• Noun
• A poem or stanza of eight lines in which the
first line is repeated as the fourth and seventh,
and the second line is repeated as the eighth
• Is the triolet more common in English or in
French verse?
Vestibule
• Noun
• A small entrance hall
• The butler made the uninvited guest wait in
the vestibule.