Glossary
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.
Word meaning in context is the sense a word takes in the sentence at hand. The items that ask for it are worded as used in the passage or most nearly means, and they are not vocabulary questions: the words are common and the surprise is the sense. A quilt that rests is not sleeping, a coat that sets is not placed, a surface that bleeds is not injured. Two rules decide these items. The commonest meaning of the word is usually the wrong choice, offered first and reading smoothly. And the answer never comes from outside the sentence: a sense the passage does not support is out even though the word really can carry it. The method is to cover the word, read the sentence as a gap, say in your own words what belongs in the gap, and only then look at the choices. The pointer words next to the gap — a dash, an or, a rather than — are the context clues that fix the sense.
Taught in
Related terms
- 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.
- denotation — Denotation is a word's plain, dictionary meaning — the sense the sentence is using when a word means nothing more than it says.
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)