Kelley K. answered • 09/29/20
Certified EC-6 Generalist and EC-12 Special Education Teacher
Words are made up of a group of letters, each of which makes a sound. This group of letters creates something new, with a meaning. For example, the word "cat" has three letters and three different sounds. Together, they mean a four legged nocturnal animal with a tail and whiskers.
Words also can look and sound exactly the same but have different meanings, such as "cape" (a warm cloak) or "cape" (a high point of land near water).
Words have denotative and connotative meanings. The denotative meaning is straight from the dictionary, such as "Cubs", which is a group of baby bears. The connotative meaning is the casual or emotional meaning of word. For example, the Chicago "Cubs" baseball team is not really made up of a bunch of baby bears playing ball. However, the word "Cubs" to a Chicago baseball fan will bring to mind the baseball team, not a group of little baby bears.
