contextual clues
Hints from surroundings
Contextual clues are hints within surrounding text or speech that help reveal the meaning of an unfamiliar word or phrase.
Readers use nearby words, sentence structure, and subject matter to infer what something means: I figured out "lugubrious" from the contextual clues—the passage was about mourning.
Teachers emphasize contextual clues as a reading comprehension strategy.
- anaphoraRepeated opening words
- pragmaticsLanguage-in-context study
- polysemyWord having related meanings
- ellipsisMark indicating omitted words
- reading comprehensionUnderstanding written material
syntax · collocations · deduction · semantics · situational awareness · idioms · inference · reading between lines · vocabulary building · cohesion · fill in blanks · setting · background · prior knowledge · analysis · hints · clues · tone of voice