Tag Archives: building vocabulary/conceptual knowledge

It was almost certainly a Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster during the pandemic, so here is a context clues on the verb deracinate. It means “uproot,” and “to remove or separate from a native environment or culture; especially to remove the racial or ethnic characteristics or influences from.” In other words, to some extent, the melting pot of American culture and society is to some extent a deracinating process.

This verb is used (if it is used at all anymore) only transitively. Don’t forget your direct object.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a context clues worksheet on the noun continuum. This is one of those words vital to learning and understanding nuance that I am constantly amazed at how easily, and therefore how often, it is overlooked. The contextual sentences are written to yield a meaning of “a coherent whole characterized as a collection, sequence, or progression of values or elements varying by minute degrees.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.