5th Grade spelling
5th Grade Words Ending in Ity
Words ending in ity: ability, community, security, university, activity. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: The suffix ity turns a describing word into a noun: able becomes ability, curious becomes curiosity.
The suffix ity turns an adjective into a noun that names a state or quality. Able becomes ability, active becomes activity, secure becomes security, popular becomes popularity. It came into English through French and Latin, and it is nearly always spoken with the stress on the syllable before it, which changes the vowel sound of the base: electric becomes electricity, with the c now sounding like s.
Thirty words are listed, among them university, community, quality, majority, reality, authority, personality, diversity and humanity. Most of them belong to the language of civics, science and reading about people, so fifth grade is where they start to matter. This list also teaches a bigger idea: that suffixes can move a word from one part of speech to another, and that the base sometimes shifts slightly when it does.
30 entries. Our solver needed 1.7 wrong guesses on average: 16 easy, 12 medium and 2 hard. The toughest is unity (7 misses), the quickest university (0).
- university Easy · 0
- community Easy · 1
- security Easy · 1
- quality Hard · 5
- ability Medium · 3
- majority Medium · 2
- reality Easy · 1
- activity Medium · 2
- authority Medium · 2
- capacity Medium · 2
- identity Easy · 0
- facility Medium · 3
- possibility Easy · 1
- personality Easy · 0
- charity Medium · 3
- electricity Easy · 1
- minority Easy · 1
- priority Medium · 3
- density Easy · 0
- diversity Easy · 1
- humanity Easy · 1
- stability Medium · 2
- equity Medium · 2
- celebrity Easy · 1
- utility Medium · 2
- equality Easy · 1
- popularity Medium · 3
- integrity Easy · 0
- unity Hard · 7
- disability Easy · 1
Words worth a closer look
- abilityAble becomes ability: the final le disappears and the base changes. A model for the group.
- communityCommon is a handy memory hook, though the word comes from a related Latin base. Note the ity, not ety.
- securitySecure becomes security. The e drops before ity.
- universityUniverse is the base. Five syllables, and the base is universe. Students often write universty.
- personalityPerson plus al plus ity. Three pieces, one long word.
Teaching it
Ask students to write the adjective beside each noun and compare the two. Some bases lose a final e (secure, security), some change letters (able, ability), and some do not change at all (active, activity). The most common error is the single t or the double: activty, activiti, or writing the ending as itty. The vowel before it often shifts: reality sounds different from real.
In hangman, the ity ending quickly turns up, so ask players to guess what the base word was before they finish. Then print the worksheet and have students write a sentence using the noun and a matching sentence using the adjective.
Print a 5th Grade Words Ending in Ity worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 5th Grade Latin Roots Port, Spect and TractLatin roots port (carry), spect (look) and tract (pull) in transport, respect, attract and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Latin Roots Dict, Rupt and StructLatin roots dict (say), rupt (break) and struct (build) in predict, interrupt, structure and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Graph, Phon and TeleGreek roots graph (write), phon (sound) and tele (far) in photograph, telephone, telescope and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Bio, Auto and MicroGreek roots bio (life), auto (self) and micro (small): biology, automatic, microscope and more. Play hangman or print a spelling worksheet.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in Ance and EnceSort words ending in ance and ence: performance, distance, science, difference. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in Ant and EntWords ending in ant and ent: important, different, assistant, excellent, accident. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.