context

«context» in Mova's school dictionary: the words and sentences around it that help you… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a context, contexts; also uncountable: context)

meaning for a pupil

1) The context of a word or sentence is the words and sentences around it that help you understand what it means. tree →

2) The context of an event is the situation, background or facts around it that help explain why it happened. tree →

3) «Out of context» means taken away from its surroundings, so the meaning is changed or unfair. tree →

sense in the lessons

In reading lessons pupils use context clues to work out the meaning of a new word: «The arid desert had no water at all» shows that «arid» means very dry. In history lessons, putting events «in context» means understanding the time and place. In media lessons, a quote or video «taken out of context» can be misleading. In maths word problems, the context is the real-life story around the sum. Phrases: in context, out of context, context clues, historical context, in this context.

examples

• Use the context to guess what the new word means. tree →
• In this context, «bat» means an animal, not a cricket bat. tree →
• The video was cut and shown out of context. tree →
• Our teacher gave us the historical context of the war. tree →
• The context of the story is a village during a flood. tree →
• Read the sentences around it for context. tree →
• His words sounded rude out of context, but he was joking. tree →
• Put the number into context: is it a lot or a little? tree →
• While gird does not seem to be the right word in this context, it's unclear what the author really intended--possibly gibe?--so it is left as printed. tree →

note

Usually a countable noun (different contexts), but often uncountable (some context, more context). Pronounced «KON-tekst». Adjective: «contextual». Many English words have more than one meaning, and only the context tells you which is meant (bank, bat, right, light).

In the corpora

• The sentence around a homophone, its context, tells you which spelling is needed.
• When you meet a new word, read the words around it: they are its context, and they leave clues.
• When context is not enough, a dictionary settles it.
• Context means the words and sentences around a word.
• Context clues can help you work out the meaning of an unknown word.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «context» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.