Words in Context

One of the most important vocabulary skills for the 11+ exam is working out what a word means from the sentence or passage it appears in. You will not always know every word — but you can almost always work it out from context. In this lesson, you will learn four powerful strategies for decoding unfamiliar words.

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Why Context Matters

In the 11+ exam, you will often see questions like:

• "What does the word '________' mean in this passage?"
• "Which word is closest in meaning to '________' as used in line 7?"
• "What does the phrase '________' suggest?"

You are not expected to know every word in advance. Instead, the exam tests whether you can use context clues — the words and sentences around an unfamiliar word — to work out its meaning.

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The Four Context Clue Strategies

Strategy 1: Look at the Surrounding Words

The words immediately before and after the unknown word often explain or hint at its meaning.

Example:

"The castle was dilapidated — its walls were crumbling, the roof had caved in, and weeds grew through cracks in the floor."