Read these lists of words

carefully. You need to put

them in order according to
their meaning. Ask yourself
‘Which word has the
strongest meaning? Which
has the weakest meaning?’
Write the weakest words
first.
1.grumpy, cross, furious

2.eat, gobble, nibble

3.Wreck, destroy,
damage
 WORD CLINE
 relatedwords placed
within a slope to show
degrees of intensity, and
arranging of strength, or
how strongly they
present an idea.
• way of building vocabulary
by looking at words that all
fit into a particular
category, and arranging
them in order of strength,
or how strongly they
represent the idea.
 EXAMPLES:
MICROSCOPIC

TINY

SMALL
 GIGANTIC

HUGE

BIG
 Temperature:
freezing, frosty, cold, chilly, nippy
warm, hot, sizzling, steaming, burning,
boiling.

 Size:
infinitesimal, tiny, small, short
tall, big, huge, enormous, gigantic,
humungous, titanic, immense
 Scary:
terrifying, frightening, horrifying, scary, creepy,
spooky
friendly, nice, buddy

 Speed:
slow, snail-like, sluggish
quick, speedy, swift, rapid, blistering, supersonic

 Speaking:
mumble, whisper, speak, talk, say, announce, yell,
shout, scream, shriek
 Read the list of words below.
Arrange them in their order of
intensity. Present them in a cline.
1) giant, lanky, tall
2) sip, swig, swallow, gulp
3) hungry, unfed, starved
4) nap, sleepy, asleep
5) I die, I weep, I faint
6. lump, particle, speck, chunk
7. great, big, enormous, gigantic
8. boring, dull, tedious, uninteresting
 Complete these sentences with the
strongest word in each set.
1.John ________ the door loudly. [ shut, slammed,
banged]
2.The towels were ________.[ hairy, scratchy, rough]
3.May’s weather was _____. [ scorching, hot warm]
4.“What do you think you are doing?”
the referee ________. [whispered, snapped,
yelled]
5.Joe was__________ when his puppy went missing.
[sad, depressed, tearful, heartbroken]