Understanding Vocabulary
When you read an unfamiliar word, you need to figure out its meaning based on how it is used. You can use the following context clues to guess a meaning.
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Word parts let you assemble meaning from prefixes, suffixes, and roots. |
Joshua tended to isolate himself, a habit strongly correlated with his bouts of paranoia. (The prefix co means “together,” the prefix re means “again,” the root late means "bring," or "bear," and the suffix ed indicates past tense, so correlated must mean “having brought two things together again.") |
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Cause-and-effect clues let you infer meaning. |
Gabrielle kept her nose buried in the novel, her mind wandering the lush lowlands of Scotland beside burly Haemish, claymore at his back, ready for brigands. (If the burly Scotsman Haemish carries a claymore on his back to deal with brigands, a claymore must be a large weapon—perhaps a sword.) |
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Definitions embedded within the text spell out the meaning. |
Jon was born on a military base and would die on one, a lifer, but for me, the Army was a means to a much bigger end. (Since "Jon was born on a military base and would die on one," a lifer must be "a person who spends a lifetime in a given activity.") |
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A series includes an unknown word with known words of the same type. |
He bore himself with the condescending, self-righteous, and supercilious air of a child who has willfully abandoned belief in the Easter Bunny. (Since supercilious is in a series with condescending and self-righteous, it must mean believing oneself to be superior to others.) |
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Examples provide specific instances of general ideas. |
Doctor Grant pointed to a chart of theropods, ranging from T-rexes to sparrows. (T-rexes were large, carnivorous dinosaurs on two legs, and sparrows are small birds on two legs, so theropods must be a wide classification of two-legged animals that spans dinosaurs and modern birds.) |
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Synonyms have the same meaning as the unfamiliar word. |
Rudy knew his opinions often caused his friends offense or even umbrage, but he voiced them anyway. (Umbrage must mean "strong offense.") |
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Antonyms have the opposite meaning as an unfamiliar word. |
This would not be conventional war, with two well-trained armies on a gridiron approved by the Geneva Convention; this would be asymmetric war between an army and secret foes with improvised explosives on city streets. (As the opposite of "conventional war," asymmetric war must mean "a regular army fighting guerillas.") |
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Tone reveals the writer’s thoughts about a word. |
As much as his dinners delighted him, he savored even more his routine repose on the couch afterward. (The words delighted and savored show pleasure, so repose on the couch must mean a "pleasurable rest.") |
Teaching Tip
As they listen and read, students have learned thousands of new words using context clues. Pointing out these clues will help students take conscious ownership of their vocabulary building.
Write definitions.
Use the clues in each of these sentences to create definitions for the words in italics.
- In their attempts to explain their absence, the boys confabulated a number of details.
- His monocle and pocket watch made him a living anachronism.
- Six hours of piano practice per day for five years had made her a virtuoso.
- A bad test score, a flat tire, and a rejected request for a date left Jeremy in a lugubrious mood.
- Sylvia's "harmless" gossip was in fact insidious, infectious, and pernicious.
- I had committed the crime: That much was plain. Now came arguments about the aggravating and mitigating circumstances surrounding the event.
- My friends all voted for "carry-out," making my vote for "picnic" as superfluous as the basket I had packed.
- His acceptance to Princeton arrived the same day as his new girlfriend, an auspicious day, indeed.
- Instead of becoming the greatest opponent of the previous order, Sandra became its apotheosis.
- The hot Saturday afternoon was filled with nothing but lemonade and rocking on the front porch and lassitude.
Define words in a text.
Read the following excerpt and use context clues to define each italicized word.
Listen to "Excerpt from Frankenstein"
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Excerpt from Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
So strange an accident has happened to us that I cannot forbear recording it, although it is very probable that you will see me before these papers can come into your possession.
Last Monday (July 31st) we were nearly surrounded by ice, which closed in the ship on all sides, scarcely leaving her the sea-room in which she floated. Our situation was somewhat dangerous, especially as we were compassed round by a very thick fog. We accordingly lay to, hoping that some change would take place in the atmosphere and weather.
About two o’clock the mist cleared away, and we beheld, stretched out in every direction, vast and irregular plains of ice, which seemed to have no end. Some of my comrades groaned, and my own mind began to grow watchful with anxious thoughts, when a strange sight suddenly attracted our attention and diverted our solicitude from our own situation. We perceived a low carriage, fixed on a sledge and drawn by dogs, pass on towards the north, at the distance of half a mile; a being which had the shape of a man, but apparently of gigantic stature, sat in the sledge and guided the dogs. We watched the rapid progress of the traveller with our telescopes until he was lost among the distant inequalities of the ice.
This appearance excited our unqualified wonder. We were, as we believed, many hundred miles from any land; but this apparition seemed to denote that it was not, in reality, so distant as we had supposed. Shut in, however, by ice, it was impossible to follow his track, which we had observed with the greatest attention.
About two hours after this occurrence we heard the ground sea, and before night the ice broke and freed our ship. We, however, lay to until the morning, fearing to encounter in the dark those large loose masses which float about after the breaking up of the ice. I profited of this time to rest for a few hours.
In the morning, however, as soon as it was light, I went upon deck and found all the sailors busy on one side of the vessel, apparently talking to someone in the sea. It was, in fact, a sledge, like that we had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice. Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter the vessel. He was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but a European. When I appeared on deck the master said, “Here is our captain, and he will not allow you to perish on the open sea.”
On perceiving me, the stranger addressed me in English, although with a foreign accent. “Before I come on board your vessel,” said he, “will you have the kindness to inform me whither you are bound?”
You may conceive my astonishment on hearing such a question addressed to me from a man on the brink of destruction and to whom I should have supposed that my vessel would have been a resource which he would not have exchanged for the most precious wealth the earth can afford. I replied, however, that we were on a voyage of discovery towards the northern pole.
Upon hearing this he appeared satisfied and consented to come on board. Good God! Margaret, if you had seen the man who thus capitulated for his safety, your surprise would have been boundless. His limbs were nearly frozen, and his body dreadfully emaciated by fatigue and suffering. I never saw a man in so wretched a condition. We attempted to carry him into the cabin, but as soon as he had quitted the fresh air he fainted. We accordingly brought him back to the deck and restored him to animation by rubbing him with brandy and forcing him to swallow a small quantity. As soon as he showed signs of life we wrapped him up in blankets and placed him near the chimney of the kitchen stove. By slow degrees he recovered and ate a little soup, which restored him wonderfully.
Two days passed in this manner before he was able to speak, and I often feared that his sufferings had deprived him of understanding. When he had in some measure recovered, I removed him to my own cabin and attended on him as much as my duty would permit. I never saw a more interesting creature: his eyes have generally an expression of wildness, and even madness, but there are moments when, if anyone performs an act of kindness towards him or does him any the most trifling service, his whole countenance is lighted up, as it were, with a beam of benevolence and sweetness that I never saw equalled. But he is generally melancholy and despairing, and sometimes he gnashes his teeth, as if impatient of the weight of woes that oppresses him.
Teaching Tip
You can have students practice vocabulary skills with any reading you assign. Simply list words that they should define using context clues from the reading.
- compassed
- solicitude
- sledge
- profited
- capitulated
- emaciated
- animation
- countenance
- benevolence
- melancholy