Vocabulary in context worksheets

Each click picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

When a strange word appears, the sentences around it are usually explaining it. Read past the word, find the clues, then come back and catch it.

Four grades, two different sets of passages: 3rd and 4th grade share one, and so do 5th and 6th grade. Print one here, or open a grade for examples and teaching notes.

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  1. 3rd grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Third grade vocabulary in context worksheets embed two strong words in each story, each surrounded by honest clues. Questions ask what the word means HERE, and which words in the passage prove it, so a lucky guess cannot survive the follow-up.

  2. 4th grade Core grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Each click picks one of the 13 passages written for this grade. Every sheet comes with its answer key. You don't need to sign up.

    Fourth grade words carry subtler clues: contrast (the opposite nearby), example, and restatement. Questions stay paired, meaning plus proof, and the wrong meanings grow more tempting, including the word's real other meaning used in the wrong place.

  3. 5th grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Fifth grade passages run long, with three target words woven through, and clues that arrive sentences later. This mirrors real reading, where nobody stops to look up every word, and the skill of harvesting meaning from context becomes the habit that grows a vocabulary for life.

  4. 6th grade

    Examples and teaching notes

    Sixth grade adds words with figurative stretch, meanings shaded by tone, and clues spread across whole paragraphs. The question is no longer only what the word means, but what work it does in exactly this spot.

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