Tag Archives: context clues

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb disillusion; it’s used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: you must disillusion someone. This word means, simply, “to free from illusion” or “to cause to lose naive faith and trust,” which is the meaning the context in the sentences in these worksheets implies–so students should infer that.

Incidentally, I don’t know about you, but I have always been circumspect about disillusioning students. It seems like a big responsibility that should be accepted carefully.

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.

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.

Here is a context clues worksheet on the verb contend. This verb is used both intransitively and transitively. For the context clues in this sentences, the two intransitive definitions, “to strive or vie in contest or rivalry or against difficulties,” and “to strive in debate” are the ones students will probably most quickly infer.

It’s worth mentioning, I guess, that the transitive definitions of contend, to wit “maintain,” “assert,” “to struggle for,” “and contest” don’t go too far afield of the intransitive meanings.

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 verb confabulate. It’s used only intransitively–so you don’t need a direct object here. For the purposes of the context the sentences in this document imply, this verb means “to fill in gaps in memory by fabrication.” However, it can also mean “to talk informally (chat),” and “to hold a discussion (confer).”

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 on the verb collaborate. The context in the sentences in this half-page document seek to prompt students to understand that this verb–used only intransitively, apparently–means “to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor.”

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 verb commemorate. It means “to call to remembrance,”    “to mark by some ceremony or observation,” “observe,” and “to serve as a memorial of.” This verb is used only transitively, so don’t forget your direct object: you most commemorate someone of something.

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, if you’ve been listening, even passively, as I have mostly, to the House January 6 Hearings, you’ll understand why now is a good time to post this context clues worksheet on the noun complicity. For the purposes of inferring meaning from context in this document, complicity means “association or participation in or as if in a wrongful act.”

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 cogent. It’s not a word one hears much, which is too bad as it is a solid, useful word which means “appealing forcibly to the mind or reason,” “convincing,” “pertinent,” and  “relevant.” Merriam-Webster also makes a point of emphasizing the synonym “valid” for cogent.

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.

It’s not much used any more (though maybe it should be), but here, nonetheless, is a context clues worksheet on the noun buffoon. Did you know it means “a ludicrous figure,” “clown,” and “a gross and usually ill-educated or stupid person”? If so, you probably understand why I might urge a return of its use to, you know, comment appropriately on our time.

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.