Flashcard 15 - Test I Reading and Language Arts Flashcard Set for the GACE

They are the hints writers give in their texts to define, explain, or support an unfamiliar word.

Context clues are generally found in the same sentence or neighboring sentence of an unfamiliar word. Context clues may be found in the form of synonyms, antonyms, explanations, or definitions, for example. Students can use them to help derive meaning from unfamiliar words.

Note: Context clues should only be used to support meaning and not to replace the decoding of an unfamiliar word.