Context clues are extremely relevant and important when learning any language. Although it seems complicated at first, once you form the habit of looking for context clues, your writing and vocabulary comprehension will increase a lot.

Look at this picture:

How is she feeling?

Angry! Mad! Upset!

Good job, you just used a context clue!

You guessed how someone is feeling just by looking at them.

You can do the same thing with sentences.

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Let’s look at this sentence:

The gloop was sticky and stuck to my fingers.

The mystery word is gloop.

Just by looking at the sentence, what do yo think gloop means?

Maybe glue, slime, or dough?

Why did you think that??

You read “sticky and stuck to my fingers”, and you were able to guess that gloop means something similar!

Good job! You used context clues to find the meaning of a new word. 🙂 Gloop isn’t actually a real word, but now let’s try a harder one with a real word:

My dog is very loyal, so he always stays by my side and follows me everywhere.

The mystery word is loyal.

Look at the sentence. Which parts can tell you what the word means?

If you said, “stays by my side” and “follows me everywhere”, you are correct!

Now, what do you think the word loyal means?

If you said something like “faithful,” or “always with you,” you are correct!

This one was a bit harder, but you can do the same thing for every sentence when you see a word that you don’t know.

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There isn’t always an exact correct answer to these; it’s helpful to know synonyms or similar words to the mystery word. Increasing your vocabulary is really important.

Here is a worksheet to practice finding the meaning of words using context clues. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know any of them! I purposely chose more difficult words that you probably don’t know, so that you can practice using context clues more efficiently.

1. Underline the clues in the sentence that tell us what the mystery word means.

2. Write the clues on the “Clues” blank.

3. Write what you think the mystery word means on the “Possible meaning” line.

The answer key that I have given has some words with similar meanings; like I said, there isn’t always just one correct answer to these.

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This next sheet is a bit more complex, and builds on the last. Now that you have found the context clues in the sentences above, use those same words to make YOUR OWN sentences. Do not copy the ones I gave you! Be creative!

Imagine that you are making the sentences for a younger kindergarten kid who doesn’t know any of the words. What clues would you give them to help them understand? Try to add details, but make them CONNECT to the word. Don’t just go crazy writing a sentence with no goal.

If you want to, you can bring these sentences to me in class and I’ll check them for you!