![]() ![]() syntactic or word order clues: The order of the words in a sentence can indicate what part of speech a missing word must be (for example, a verb).semantic or meaning clues: For example, when reading a story about cats, the reader will have the expectation that it will contain words associated with cats.Others describe context clues in three ways: ![]() The relationships between words are not directly obvious and instead implied. There may also be word-part context clues in which a common prefix, suffix, or root will suggest at least part of the meaning of a word.Ī general sense context clue lets the reader puzzle out a word meaning from whatever information is available-and this is the most common kind of context clue. ![]() Specific example (or an example context clue): The text provides one or more examples used to define the term: The children were able to observe several crustaceans, including crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.Explanation (or a definition context clue): An unknown word is explained within the sentence or in the sentence immediately after: On Friday, we visited the arboretum, a garden dedicated to the exhibition of trees and plants.Antonym (or contrast context clue): The text may include a word or words that have the opposite meaning, which can reveal the meaning of an unknown term: Stella has always dressed flamboyantly.For example, there may be a complex word followed by a restatement using a simpler word in the same or following sentence: Felipe is a miser. Synonym (or repeat context clue): An author will use more than one word that means the same thing.There are at least four kinds of context clues that are quite common: Because most of our vocabulary is gained through reading, it is important that we are able to recognize and take advantage of context clues. Context clues can be part of the same sentence or they may be part of the text that comes before or follows. In effect, context clues can be anything that helps you to figure out or guess the meaning of a word or passage when you’re unsure of its meaning. The term context clues is used as a way of referring to the bits of information within a text that can serve as hints to help a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar or unusual word or passage. But how can you identify a context clue? What are context clues? Looking for context clues is one technique that is helpful for readers of all ages and experience levels. Teachers use the term decoding to refer to the ability to see a written word and read it aloud. While their denotation may be roughly equivalent or even identical, their shades of meaning are not.When you come across an unfamiliar word while reading, how do you try to understand its meaning? Chances are you use context clues-even if you’ve never heard of that term.įaced with a sea of unfamiliar words, beginning readers learn many techniques for decoding words and expanding their vocabularies. Words that are listed as synonyms often have connotations that better suit a given context. Some of these terms do seem to be true synonyms, but create different impressions or may be used in different contexts. If not, we would always use the original (except perhaps to avoid boredom or for euphony).Īttractiveness, appeal, charm, grace, bloom, glamour, fairness, elegance, symmetry (formal or literary), allure, loveliness, prettiness, seductiveness, gorgeousness, pleasantness, handsomeness, pulchritude, winsomeness, comeliness, exquisiteness, seemliness, pleasingness, prepossessingness The very fact that we seek synonyms to words indicates that there are subtle differences between the word we know and the word we seek. One could argue that such offerings are not true synonyms, but in practice we may not make that distinction. Very often a term that is either a subset or a superset of another term is considered a synonym in many contexts. The Collins Thesaurus (found here) lists the following synonyms for the word pistol When we use reference works to search for synonyms, we are usually presented with a variety of choices. Part of the difficulty is what we mean by synonym. ![]()
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