Vocabulary in context

A word’s most common dictionary meaning is not always its meaning in a given passage. Look at the surrounding sentence.

Strategy

1. Replace the word with a blank.
2. Decide what kind of word fits — positive, negative, technical, casual.
3. Test the answer choices in the blank.

Example

Her novel approach to teaching helped students who had given up on math.

Here novel means "new / original", not "a long fictional book". The clue is "approach to teaching".

Why this matters

On reading tests, vocabulary-in-context items are some of the most reliable points to win — if you read the sentence around the word.