Reading: Meaning in Context
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According to the American Heritage Dictionary, context means: “The part of a text or
statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning.”
When reading a book, magazine, or other literary material, the reader will sometimes come
across an unfamiliar word. Since it is not always convenient to look up the word in the
dictionary, the reader must examine the word and how it is used in the sentence to figure out
what the author is trying to say.
One method is to break the word down into its root form with its suffix and prefix. For
example, the word Tyrannosaurus Rex can be broken down like this: tyranno – tyrant; saurus –
lizard; rex – king. From what is known about this dinosaur, the name fits. However, a literal
break down does not always reveal the meaning. For example, dinosaur broken down, is dino –
terrible; saur – lizard. Not all dinosaurs were terrible.
Another method of figuring out what the word means is to re-read the sentence containing
the word, and examine what other information the writer gives. The additional information
is often called context clues and can come in the form of:

EXAMPLE - providing an example of the meaning,

CONTRAST - writing a statement of what the word does NOT mean, or

RESTATEMENT - rewording the sentence to state the meaning in a different way.
Below are sentences that illustrate these context clues.
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Reading: Meaning in Context
CLUE
Example
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WORD &
SENTENCE
DEFINITION
Corporeal –
“Mommy, you sat on Jack!” three-year-old Grace scolded as I
pertaining to
sat on the couch. Jack is Grace’s imaginary friend. Having a
characteristics of a
corporeal member of the family is challenging. Although Jack
body.
has no body, she treats him like he is a flesh-and-blood person.
Ignoble –
not
To be a thief is to be ignoble. If one were a thief, having a
Contrast
having high moral
strong moral character would not be important.
character.
Monition –
Restatement warning of
impending danger.
Tabloid newspapers must love to print the monitions of
Nostradamus. It seems every other week his warnings of
impending danger are on the front page.
At times, the additional information the author provides does not accurately describe what the
word means. The following sentence is an example:
Susan was an eloquent speaker; she was always calm and composed at the podium.
Eloquent means to be refined in speech. If one were to use the additional information in this
sentence, the conclusion would be that eloquent refers to Susan’s manner, not the way she spoke.
Copyright © 2014. Florida State College at Jacksonville. All Rights Reserved.
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