Context clues worksheets
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The sentence around a hard word usually hides its meaning. Read past the word, find the clue, then decide: The arid desert had not seen rain for months, so arid must mean very dry.
Seven grades, each its own sheet. Print one here, or open a grade for examples and teaching notes.
Print by grade
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2nd grade
A context clue is a hint in the sentence that tells you what a new word means. In second grade the words come from picture books and early chapter books, like soggy and nibble. Your child reads the whole sentence, finds the words that explain the new one, and picks the meaning that fits.
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3rd grade
A context clue is the part of a sentence that explains a word you do not know yet. Third grade words are harder, like cautious and famished, and the sentences are longer, so the clue can sit farther from the word. Your child has to read to the end before choosing.
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4th grade
Context clues are the hints a sentence drops about an unfamiliar word: a restatement, an example, or a contrast nearby. Fourth graders read the whole sentence, find the clue, and pick the meaning the context supports.
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5th grade Core grade
Each print is a different sheet with its own answer key. You don't need to sign up.
Fifth graders work with subtler clues and richer words: a cause and its effect, a contrast (candid instead of polite), or a telling detail. The habit of hunting evidence inside the sentence becomes automatic.
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6th grade
Sixth graders apply context reasoning to academic vocabulary across subjects, weighing which of several plausible meanings the sentence actually confirms. This is the exact skill reading tests probe with their vocabulary-in-context questions.
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7th grade
A context clue is the part of a sentence that tells you what an unfamiliar word means. Seventh grade words come from the academic vocabulary of articles and textbooks, and the clue is often a restatement, a contrast, or an example rather than a definition in plain sight.
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8th grade
A context clue is the part of a sentence that tells you what an unfamiliar word means. Eighth grade sentences are longer, and the clue can come before the word, after it, or in a contrast, so the reader has to keep the whole sentence in mind. The words come from novels, editorials, and history texts: laconic, perfunctory, magnanimous.
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