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 the passage vocabulary questions that appear in every SEAG comprehension section
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
Answer 'closest in meaning' multiple-choice questions by substituting each option into the sentence and checking the sense
Answer 'as used in the passage' questions where the word has more than one meaning and the distractors include its other real meanings
Three free sample questions from our working out words from context course. Every question comes with a full explanation, and hints that guide without giving the answer away.
Read this sentence: 'The famished walkers had eaten nothing since leaving Newcastle early that morning.' What does 'famished' mean?
Answer: A. very hungry
Read past the unknown word and collect the clue: the walkers 'had eaten nothing since... early that morning'. People who have not eaten all day are extremely hungry. So 'famished' means very hungry, check: 'the very hungry walkers had eaten nothing' still makes sense.
Stuck? Start here: Do not panic at the unknown word, read the rest of the sentence for clues.
Read this sentence: 'Jake trudged up the muddy hillside, his legs aching with every step.' Which word is closest in meaning to 'trudged'?
Answer: D. plodded
Predict from the clues: mud and aching legs mean slow, heavy, effortful walking. Substitute each option: 'skipped' and 'raced' clash with the aching legs, and 'tumbled' means falling. Only 'plodded', walked slowly and heavily, keeps the sentence making sense.
Stuck? Start here: Predict first: muddy hill, aching legs, how would Jake be moving?
Read this sentence from a passage: 'Grandad checked the current before letting the children paddle in the river at Sion Mills.' Which is closest in meaning to 'current' as used in the passage?
Answer: E. the flow of the water
'Current' has several meanings, so use the passage: the clue words are 'river' and 'paddle'. A careful grandad checks how strongly the RIVER is flowing before children get in. So here 'current' means the flow of the water, the other options are real meanings that fail the substitution check.
Stuck? Start here: 'As used in the passage' warns you the word has several meanings, reread the sentence.
This is the exact interactive worked example your child sees in SEAGReady. Step through it and watch the method build up.
Aoife is reading a story set on a farm near Omagh and meets a word she does not know: '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.'
What does 'derelict' mean in this sentence?
Step 1 of 7
Aoife is reading a story set on a farm near Omagh and meets a word she does not know: '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.'
What does 'derelict' mean in this sentence?
'Derelict' means run-down and abandoned - the fallen roof, smashed windows and years of emptiness are the clues.
The key insight: Authors usually leave clues right beside a tricky word - you can work out the meaning like a detective, without a dictionary!
Watch out: 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.
Struggling with working out words from context? The real gap is often in one of these earlier topics.
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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