Using clues in the surrounding sentence or passage to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word, and checking the answer by substitution.
Where your child meets this in real life: Reading harder books confidently without a dictionary, and answering passage-bound vocabulary questions in the SEAG assessment
Vocabulary is not a separate section of the SEAG paper. Word meaning comes up across the English section, especially in the questions on the reading passage.
SEAGReady breaks working out words from context into 3 steps, taught in order so each skill builds on the last.
Work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word by finding the clues the author has left in the surrounding sentence
Building block, not tested on its own
Answer 'closest in meaning' multiple-choice questions by comparing each grammatical replacement with the word's core meaning and nuance in context
Answer 'as used in the passage' questions where the word has more than one meaning and the distractors include its other real meanings
Try three free questions from our working out words from context course. They start easy and get harder, so you can see where your child's confidence runs out. If they manage the last one without a hint, this topic is probably secure. If not, the steps above show where to start.
Read this sentence: 'Jake trudged up the muddy hillside, his legs aching with every step.' Which word is closest in meaning to 'trudged'?
Read this sentence from a passage: 'A single lamp cast a faint light across the harbour.' Which is closest in meaning to 'cast' as used in the passage?
Read this sentence: 'At the memorial, a melancholy tune drifted from the fiddle. Its slow minor melody reminded Granda of the friend he was mourning, and he quietly wiped away a tear.' What does 'melancholy' mean?
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
Anna reads: 'At the end of the lane stood a derelict shed: its roof had fallen in, its windows were smashed, and nobody had set foot in it for years.'
Which one word in the passage means 'run-down and abandoned'?
The question asks for one word from the passage, so scan for a word describing the shed
Step 1 of 7
Anna reads: 'At the end of the lane stood a derelict shed: its roof had fallen in, its windows were smashed, and nobody had set foot in it for years.'
Which one word in the passage means 'run-down and abandoned'?
'Derelict' is the one word meaning run-down and abandoned - the fallen roof, smashed windows and years of emptiness confirm it.
The key insight: Authors usually leave clues right beside a tricky word - you can work out the meaning like a detective, without a dictionary!
Common mix-up: Guessing from what the word looks like, e.g. thinking 'derelict' has something to do with 'direct'. Words that look alike often mean completely different things. The clues in the sentence are reliable; the look of the word is not.
These are the misconceptions we see most often in working out words from context, including the ones our practice questions are specifically designed to catch.
Sitting the SEAG test this November? Read our last-month revision plan, Paper 1 vs Paper 2 and test day guide.
SEAGReady finds the exact step where your child gets stuck, teaches it with worked examples like the one above, and brings it back for review so it sticks.
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