Which Word Means To Use One's Senses To Learn About An Event Or Object?

What Are Context Clues?

Published October 7, 2020

When was the last time you lot ran across an unfamiliar word while reading? How did y'all decipher it? Chances areyou may have used context clues of some kind—just similar a beginning reader would.

Faced with a ocean of unfamiliar words, beginning readers acquire many techniques for decoding words and expanding their vocabularies. Teachers apply the term decoding to refer to the ability to see a written word and read it aloud.

Looking for context clues is 1 technique that is helpful for readers of all ages and experience levels.

What are context clues?

Context clues are hints that an author gives to assistance ascertain a difficult or unusual word within a book. The clue may appear inside the same judgement as the word to which it refers or it may follow in the next sentence. Considering most of our vocabulary is gained through reading, information technology is of import that nosotros are able to recognize and take advantage of context clues.

Lookout man: Words Bookworms Mispronounce Because We Read Them First

What does a context clue look like?

In that location are at to the lowest degree four kinds ofcontext clues that are quite mutual:

Synonym (or repeat context clue): An writer volition use more than than one word that means the aforementioned thing. For example, there may exist a complex word followed past a restatement using a simpler discussion in the aforementioned or following judgement: Felipe is a miser. He's always been inexpensive.
Antonym (or contrast context clue): The text may include a word or words that take the reverse pregnant, which can reveal the meaning of an unknown term: Stella has ever dressed flamboyantly. I've never seen her clothing a deadening colour.
Caption (or a definition context inkling): An unknown discussion is explained within the judgement or in the judgement immediately after: On Friday, we visited the arboretum, a garden dedicated to the exhibition of copse and plants.
Specific example (or an example context inkling): The text provides i or more than examples used to define the term: The children were able to notice several crustaceans, including crabs, lobsters, and shrimp.

There may likewise be word-function context clues in which a common prefix, suffix, or root will suggest at to the lowest degree part of the significant of a word.

Afull general sense context clue lets the reader puzzle out a discussion meaning from any information is available—and this is the most mutual kind ofcontext clue. The relationships between words are not straight obvious and instead implied.

Others draw context clues in three ways:

semantic or meaning clues: When reading a story about cats, expert readers develop the expectation that it will contain words associated with cats, such as tail, purr, scratch, and whiskers.
syntactic or discussion order clues: The gild of the words in a judgement tin indicate what office of speech a missing discussion must be (for example, a verb).
pic clues: From an early on age, get-go readers are taught to wait at illustrations to help with the identification of a give-and-take.