Context Clues

• Context clues are hints in the surrounding sentence that help you guess the meaning of an unfamiliar word.
• You do not always need a dictionary — the rest of the sentence often explains the word for you.
• Clues can come from examples, descriptions, or what happens next in the sentence.

Level 1 — Description clues

"The soup was so scrumptious that everyone asked for a second bowl." → scrumptious must mean delicious, because people wanted more.

Level 2 — Cause and result clues

"Ravi felt exhausted and needed to rest." → exhausted must mean very tired, because he needed to rest.

Level 3 — Multiple clue sentences

Sometimes you need to read two or three sentences together to figure out a harder word's meaning, using every clue in the passage.

NCERT anchor: Marigold 4 (CBSE English reader) — vocabulary in context and inferential reading.

"The ancient temple was built hundreds of years ago." What does 'ancient' mean?

Step 1 — Look at the rest of the sentence: "built hundreds of years ago".
Step 2 — This tells us the temple is very old.
Answer: ancient means very old.

• "The stubborn goat refused to move." What does 'stubborn' mean?
• "The gigantic whale swam beneath the boat." What does 'gigantic' mean?
• Stretch: Write a sentence using a new word so that its context clues reveal its meaning.

Revision tip: Whenever you see an unfamiliar word while reading, pause and check the sentence around it for clues before looking it up.

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Context Clues.