Vocabulary

Figuring Out Words in Context

What context clues can help me?

The disarray in her room made it impossible to move. Clothes and papers covered the floor, and book and magazines threatened to spill from every shelf.

What context clues can help?

• Children ran screaming up and down the aisles, and the man beside me snored loudly. I tried to block out the noise, but I’m afraid I couldn’t hear you. Your speech was inaudible.

Definition and Restatement

• The cats that live behind our garage are feral, or wild.

• He studies pachyderm, including the elephant, rhinoceros, and hippo.

Compare or Contrast

• He wasn’t apologetic; on the contrary, he didn’t seem at all sorry that he was two hours late.

How to Figure it Out!

1. Identify the unfamiliar word. ( I am not sure what ______ means.)

2. Read to see if there is a word that signals that an example may follow. (I see a phrase such as …)

3. Find the example or example.4. Ask yourself how the example or examples relate to

the unfamiliar word (Use prior knowledge.)5. Use this information to figure out what the word

means.6. Look up the word in the dictionary to verify its

meaning.

What is the meaning?

• If we all bear down on the boulder, maybe we can push it off the road.

• High overhead, the canopy of tree leaves was so thick that it protected us from feeling a drop of rain.

• After a few hours, there was nothing left of the logs in the fireplace except a pile of small, glowing embers.

What’s the meaning?

• Tourists gather around the hot spring every hour to see the geyser spray hot water and steam into the air.

• At the point where two medium-size streams merge, the waters combine to form, rushing river.

• The fire sucked much of the oxygen out of the air, making it difficult to breath.

What’s the meaning?

• After the storm, the raging river threatenedthe lives of the towns people.

• We gathered dry twigs and tinder to start the campfire.

• The stunt planes dive toward the ground, but at the last minute they veer back upward.

• The hot summer sun was so withering that all the flowers turned brown and brittle.

What’s the meaning?

• We ate so much cereal last week that now our supplies of the food are beginning to dwindle.

• A strong wind began churning the pile of leaves, turning them over and over.