Tag Archives: context clues

Because it’s Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today, and because it is a nice solid noun that turns up in several registers of discourse in English, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun forebear. N.B. that Merriam-Webster advises that this noun is generally used in the plural; I’ve used it that way in this worksheet in all the context clues sentences.

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.

I don’t think I can defend it as a word students must know, but since it popped up as Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day on a morning when I felt like writing one, I can offer you this context clues worksheet on the adjective nonpareil. In addition to describing a certain kind of confection (“a small flat disk of chocolate covered with white sugar pellets” or “sugar in small pellets of various colors”–in other words, think of Nestle’s Sno-caps at the movie theater), this worksheet, using context, uses the definition “an individual of unequaled excellence” and “paragon.”

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.

OK, last but not least this morning, here is a context clues worksheet on the verb abstain, which is in fact Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day today. It is only used intransitively, and it is a word students probably ought to know and be able to use.

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.

At this point, on most days, if I post a context clues worksheet chances are good that it was that day’s Word of the Day at Merriam-Webster. So, on that note, I’ll stop qualifying them as such, because if I am finding it a tedious rhetorical move, I’ll bet you are too.

So, here is a context clues worksheet on the noun juncture. This word has meanings related to junction, but for our purposes, as the worksheet’s context points up, the meaning is “a point of time; esp : one made critical by a concurrence of circumstances.” This is a relatively heavily used work in English, and a strong one, with a Latin pedigree.

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.