Glossary
context clue
A context clue is the word or phrase near an unfamiliar word that fixes what it means here — a definition, a restatement, a contrast, an example, or a cause and its effect.
A context clue is the word or phrase near an unfamiliar word that fixes what it means here. There are five shapes, and naming the shape is most of the work. A definition gives the meaning in place, often after a comma or a dash — a step the potters call candling, a warming that drives off the last of the water. A restatement repeats the meaning in plainer words. A contrast gives the opposite, so the meaning is the reverse of what follows unlike or rather than. An example is a member of the class the word names, standing in for the whole class. A cause or effect explains the word by what it does. The method is to look at the sentence rather than the word: a word-in-context item is never answered from a dictionary, and the option that gives the word's commonest meaning is often the wrong one. Pointing at the clue words is also how you check an answer — if you cannot name them, you have guessed.
Taught in
Related terms
- text structure — Text structure is how a passage is arranged — chronological, cause then effect, problem then solution, general then specific, concession then counterpoint, or claim, evidence, recommendation — and what in the wording signals that arrangement.
- word meaning in context — Word meaning in context is the sense a word takes in the sentence in front of you — a real sense the word has, and often not its commonest one.
Source: The reading skills ATI names in its own Content Outline (R.2.1-R.2.4, under the Craft and structure sub-content area), plus the tone and passage-structure skills that sub-content area's published description names; each definition below is written for the Craft and Structure guide in this exam, in our own words, and explains the skill the way the guide teaches it. (ATI Content Outline read 2026-10-09; definitions written 2026-10-09)