Types of Context Clues - Doral Academy Preparatory School



Types of Context Clues (Strategies for Vocabulary)

1. Examples

2. Synonyms

3. Antonyms

4. General sense of the sentence or passage

1. Examples

If you are given examples that relate to an unknown word, you can often figure out its meaning. Note that examples are often introduced with signal words and phrases like for example, for instance, including, and such as.

Example:

Throughout history, humans have built a wide variety of dwellings, including simple mud huts, stone castles, and marble mansions.

Dwellings means:

a. homes b. stores c. churches

2. Synonyms (restatement)

Context clues are often found in the form of synonyms: one or more words that mean the same or almost the same as the unknown word.

Example:

My best friend squandered all his money; his drinking and gambling wasted his earnings.

Look at the word wasted. This is a synonym of squandered. We also know this strategy as a restatement context clue.

Example:

write the synonym of the italicized word.

After the heavy rains, the stream became murky; in fact, the water was so cloudy you couldn’t see the bottom.

What kind of water would you be unable to see through?

3. Antonym

Antonyms are words and phrases that mean the opposite of a word. Antonyms are sometimes signaled by words and phrases such as however, but, yet, on the other hand, instead of, and in contrast.

Example:

The coach takes every opportunity to reprimand his players, yet he ignores every chance to praise them.

Reprimand means:

a. approve of b. criticize c. choose

4. General Sense of the Sentence or Passage

Sometimes it takes a bit more detective work to puzzle out the meaning of an unfamiliar word. In such cases, you must draw conclusions based on the information surrounding the word. Asking yourself questions about the passage may help you make a fairly accurate guess about the meaning of the unfamiliar word.

Example:

The newlyweds agreed to be very frugal in their shopping because they wanted to save enough money to buy a house.

(how do people shop if they wanted to save money?)

Frugal means:

a. thrifty b. wasteful c. interested

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