Tag Archives: context clues

It’s not a high-frequency word in English, so I suspect that I wrote this context clues worksheet on the adjective turgid because it turned up as a Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster. The context clues themselves, which I stipulate aren’t as strong as they could be, are composed to yield the definition “excessively embellished in style or language,” “bombastic,” and “pompous.” This is one of those words whose definition brings back more words students may not know. I suppose what I mean to say here is that this document may be of limited utility without some judicious editing or even rewriting.

And that only if one thinks students need to know this word before graduating high school, which they probably do not.

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 umbrage. I understand that this is not a word that is in high demand in most discourse. But what an interesting pedigree it carries. Before I bloviate on that, however, l’ll mention that the context clues in this document are keyed to the most commonly used definition of this in English, i.e. “a feeling of pique or resentment at some often fancied slight or insult.” I don’t know if I’ve ever heard it use without the transitive verb take, as in “Daffy Duck took umbrage when Elmer Fudd shot him in the face.”

Did you know that one of the meanings of this word, by Merriam-Webster’s reckoning, is “shady branches.” Umbrage originates from the Latin umbraticus, which means “pertaining to shade.” Unsurprisingly, the word penumbra also grows from the root of this Latin adjective. Penumbra, interestingly, is also a word used in jurisprudence, as when Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas wrote the majority opinion in Griswold v. Connecticut.

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 stratagem and another on the noun strategy. These two words are related, obviously, so it seemed best to post them together. What is the difference between them?

Stratagem means “an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemy,” “a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end” and “skill in ruses or trickery.” Strategy, as we most commonly use it, means “the science and art of employing the political, economic, psychological, and military forces of a nation or group of nations to afford the maximum support to adopted policies in peace or war,” and “the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions.” It’s worth mentioning that a further definition of strategy is “the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal.” That may be the best explanation of the relationship–and therefore use–of these two solid, Greek-based nouns. An set of stratagems becomes an aggregate–a strategy.

If you find typos in these documents, 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.

Last but not least on this dark Friday morning, here is a context clues worksheet on the adjective spontaneous. This is a high-frequency word in English, so it is one students should know, at the bare minimum (if you’ll indulge me while I ride on my high horse this morning), but the time they graduate high school.

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 adjective scarce. I’m sure I wrote this for use in the economics-themed high school in which I previously served. It goes without saying that this word is in sufficiently common use in English that high school students should know it prior to their graduation.

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 scavenger. I can’t remember why I wrote this, but it may have been because I had students who were hearing and seeing the words used in a biology class of some sort and couldn’t quite get their minds around it. I dimly recall debating whether or not to write for the noun or the verb–scavenge. If that’s the word better suited to the needs of your classroom, this Microsoft Word document is easy enough to convert to the verb.

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.