meddle
To interfere in things that are not your business.
- 'Don't meddle in my project,' snapped Ria, snatching back her glue.
- The wizard warned his apprentice never to meddle with spells that were not his business.
Similar: interfere, tamper, fiddle
meddle or tamper?
You meddle in other people's business. You tamper with things.
Both words describe poking into something that is not yours, so they can feel identical. The easy way to separate them is to ask what is being interfered with.
Meddling is about people and their affairs. A younger sister who reads her brother's messages and then tells him who he should invite to his party is meddling. Nothing gets physically touched; she has simply pushed her way into his business.
Tampering is about objects. Someone who fiddles with the lock on the shed until it jams, or pokes about inside the back of the television, has tampered with it, and the word usually hints that damage has been done. That is why sealed jars and medicine boxes have tamper-proof lids.
Both words, side by side
tamper
To touch or change something you should not, often causing damage.
- Someone had tampered with the lock, and now the shed door swung open.
- 'Do not tamper with the smoke alarm,' warned Dad, 'or it won't work when we really need it.'
Similar: meddle, fiddle, interfere
Why it costs marks
In a cloze question the sentence usually gives the game away: tamper nearly always comes with "with" and a thing, while meddle goes with people's lives and plans. A child who knows that can fill the gap with confidence instead of guessing between two words that both look right.
Definitions and example sentences on this page are the ones a child sees inside Wordrealm, taken from our list of over 1,100 words. It is free to browse, with nothing to sign up for.
Sitting the 11+ in Kent, Medway or Buckinghamshire?
Plain-English guides to each test, from the councils’ own pages: Kent Test · Medway Test · Bucks Secondary Transfer Test