Hidden Words & Compound Words

In this lesson, you will learn about two fun and important question types: hidden words and compound words. Both require you to look carefully at how words are built and how letters fit together.

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Part 1: Hidden Words

What Is a Hidden Word Question?

In a hidden word question, a word is hiding inside a sentence or phrase. The letters of the hidden word span across two or more words in the sentence. You need to spot where the hidden word starts and ends.

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Worked Example 1

Question: Find the hidden animal in this sentence.

"I saw the rabbit on the hill."

Wait — that is too obvious. Let us try a proper hidden word:

"She came looking for a new table."

Step-by-step:

1. Read the sentence and look for a word hiding across word boundaries.
2. Look carefully: came looking — hidden word: melon? No, let us check: camel — yes! The word camel hides across "came looking".
3. Actually, look more carefully: "camelooking" — the letters c-a-m-e-l span "came" and "looking".
4. Answer: camel (an animal)

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Worked Example 2