Words in context | Lesson

What are "words in context" questions?

On the Reading and Writing section of your SAT, some questions will ask you to
select the most logical and precise word or phrase in a given context.
Words in context questions will look like this:

WORDS IN CONTEXT: EXAMPLE

In recommending Bao Phi’s collection Sông I Sing, a librarian noted that pieces by
the spoken-word poet don’t lose their ______ nature when printed: the language
has the same pleasant musical quality on the page as it does when performed by
Phi.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Jarring b. scholarly c. melodic d. personal

How should we determine the most "precise" word?

A "precise" word is one that means exactly what it should in a given situation: it
will fit its sentence perfectly and reinforce the text's meaning.
This last bit is important. We're not just looking for a word that sounds right or
looks good. Instead, we need to understand the text and select the word with a
meaning that best matches the point the text is making. This means that, when
attempting words in context questions, reading comprehension is just as important
as our knowledge of vocabulary.
To help us identify the best word in context, we should focus on two things:
context and connotation.

Context
Context refers to the specific scenario we're attempting to match a word or phrase
to. To understand the context, we must read the provided text carefully.
Because we need to know the meaning of the word we're looking for, that meaning
will be provided a second time within the text. This results in many prompts for
words in context questions following a similar pattern of
Statement. Restatement.
The trick then is to match the word we're looking for with the equivalent idea in
the other statement.
For example, let's look back at our example item prompt:
In recommending Bao Phi’s collection Sông I Sing, a librarian noted that pieces by
the spoken-word poet don’t lose their ______ nature when printed: the language
has the same pleasant musical quality on the page as it does when performed by
Phi.
We have two matching statements here:
· The poems keep their _____ nature when printed.
· The poems have the same pleasant musical quality when "on the page".
Notice how the blank in the first statement lines up with the phrase pleasant
musical quality in the second statement. This is the context that tells us what word
that we should choose: the word that most closely means "pleasant" and
"musical".

Connotation
"Connotations" are the associations that we have with different words. One
common example of connotation is whether a word feels positive or negative.
Words can have similar meanings but vastly different connotations.
For example, the words "promising" and "ominous" both mean that something is
predictive of the future. However, while "promising" has a strongly positive
connotation, "ominous" has a strongly negative connotation. Therefore, these
words can't logically applied to the same context.
If you're stuck on a words in context question, try focusing on these connotations.
Is the sentence positive? Then the word we choose should be positive too!
For example:
· The basketball star's promising play this season suggests a bright future.
· The dark, ominous clouds on the horizon suggest a storm is coming.
Based on context clues like "bright" and "storm", it's clear where the positive and
negative words are most appropriate.

How to approach words in context questions

To solve a words in context question, follow these three steps:
Step 1: Summarize the text in your own words
Don't just skim the text. Read it closely, and try to summarize the main idea in your
own words. This can be tricky, since an important word is likely missing. If you're
struggling to understand the text, try and translate each idea into a simple bullet
point.
Remember, words in context prompts tend to follow a similar pattern. They will
make a claim, and then they will expand upon or restate that claim in different
words.
Step 2: Identify the key word, phrase, or idea
The text provides all the information you need to know. Whatever point the text is
making, the correct answer will reinforce that idea. Often, there will be one word
or phrase in the text that has nearly the same meaning as the correct answer. Find
the right context clues, and the next part should be easy.
Step 3: Select the word that matches
If a choice changes the meaning of the text, or introduces a new idea or
perspective, then it's not the most precise word in context. Only one of the choices
will match and emphasize the idea being expressed in the text. You can select that
choice with confidence!

Top tips
Charge it (+/-)
Sometimes connotation alone is enough to answer a words in context question. Is
the text expressing something positive? If so, we can eliminate any choices that are
too negative or neutral.
Avoid unknowns
On test day, you may encounter some words that you don't know. Many test-takers
make the mistake of selecting words that they don't know in the choices instead of
ones they know better and "feel right". These students think the words they know
better must be "traps", because they might "seem too easy". This strategy can often
backfire.
To raise your chances of getting words in context questions correct, try this
instead:
· Eliminate what you can from the words you do know
· Select an option from what remains.
Note: The only time you should select a word you don't know is if you can
confidently eliminate all of the other choices.

PRACTICE QUESTIONS
WORDS IN CONTEXT
1. Scientists previously thought that all electric eels belong to a single species,
but a team of researchers led by zoologist C. David de Santana proved this
idea wrong by ______ that there are in fact three distinct species of electric
eels.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. requiring b. demonstrating c. Complaining d. pretending
 2. US traffic signals didn’t always contain the familiar three lights (red, yellow,
and green). Traffic lights only ______ red and green lights until the three-
light traffic signal was developed in 1923.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. avoided b. featured c. appreciated d. disregarded

3. In the award-winning puzzle game Monument Valley, players navigate the

silent princess Ida through a series of puzzles and optical illusions. The
game is known for its ______ art design: beautiful, fantastical architecture
and calming pastel colors that make the game both challenging and pretty to
look at.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. violent b. mundane c. intricate d. distracting

4. The Iguazu Falls, which lie on the border between Argentina and Brazil, are
a popular and ______ tourist destination. The waterfalls have been visited by
people from all over the world for over a century, and they are often cited as
one of the most impressive natural wonders on Earth.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. fleeting b. Revered c. Obscure d. precarious

5. Dance choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar aims to give people the

opportunity to be ______ her creative process. For example, live
performances of her dance HairStories, which debuted in 2001, featured
videos of people across the United States talking about their hair and
audience members sharing pictures of their interesting hairstyles.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. involved in b. nervous about c. delayed by d. completed by

6. Charles “Teenie” Harris was a photographer for the Pittsburgh Courier from
1936 to 1975. During his career he took over 70,000 photographs
documenting everyday life in Pittsburgh’s Black communities. The Carnegie
Museum of Art maintains thousands of his photographs, carefully ______
them so that audiences can continue to view them well into the future.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
 a. inventing b. counting c. replacing d. preserving

7. The following text is from Booth Tarkington’s 1921 novel Alice Adams.
Mrs. Adams had always been fond of vases, she said, and every year her husband’s
Christmas present to her was a vase of one sort or another—whatever the clerk
showed him, marked at about twelve or fourteen dollars.
As used in the text, what does the word “marked” most nearly mean?
a. stained b. staged c. watched d. priced

8. Visual artist Gabriela Alemán states that the bold colors of comics, pop art,
and Latinx culture have always fascinated her. This passion for the rich
history and colors of her Latinx community translates into the ______
artworks she produces.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. unknown b. reserved c. definite d. vivid

9. The Appalachian Trail is a hiking path in the eastern United States. Much of
the 2,000 mile trail passes through wilderness areas. In order to ______
those areas, the United States Congress passed the National Trails System
Act in 1968, ensuring that the trail would not be sold or commercially
developed.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. protect b. borrow c. postpone d. decorate

10.According to statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the best way to predict the
amount of time a nonperishable entity (such as a building or a technology)
will continue to exist is to examine how long it has survived so far. In this
view, an item’s age is the strongest ______ how much longer it will last.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. uncertainty about b. motivation for c. indicator of d. criticism
of

11.The following text is from Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi.
The narrator’s family owned a zoo when he was a child.
It was a huge zoo, spread over numberless acres, big enough to require a train to
explore it, though it seemed to get smaller as I grew older, train included.
As used in the text, what does the word “spread” most nearly mean?
a. extended b. coated c. discussed d. hidden

12.Biologist Jane Edgeloe and colleagues have located what is believed to be

the largest individual plant in the world in the Shark Bay area of Australia.
The plant is a type of seagrass called Posidonia australis, and it ______
approximately 200 square kilometers.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. acknowledges b. produces c. spans d. advances

13.To develop a method for measuring snow depth with laser beams, NASA
physicist Yongxiang Hu relied on ______; identifying broad similarities
between two seemingly different phenomena, Hu used information about
how ants move inside colonies to calculate how the particles of light that
make up laser beams travel through snow.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. a collaboration b. an analogy c. an accessory d. a
contradiction

14.Business researcher Melanie Brucks and colleagues found that remote video
conference meetings may be less conducive to brainstorming than in-person
meetings are. The researchers suspect that video meeting participants are
focused on staring at the speaker on the screen and don’t allow their eyes or
mind to wander as much, which may ultimately ______ creativity.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?

a. Recommend b. criticize c. construct d. impede

15.A recent study by a group of neurologists aims to ______ the long-term

effects of concussions. By tracking the health and cognitive functioning of
participants over time, the study can help us better understand the risks
associated with head injuries.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Obscure b. clarify c. minimize d. exacerbate
 16."Don't go," I urged. "Cancel your passage and come out on the same boat
with me."
Poirot drew himself up and glanced at me reproachfully.
"Ah, it is that you do not understand! I have passed my word, you
comprehend—the word of Hercule Poirot. Nothing but a matter of life or death
could detain me now."
"And that's not likely to occur," I murmured ruefully.
As used in the text, what does the word "reproachfully" most nearly mean?
a. disapprovingly b. indifferently c. dully d. compassionately

17.As a young photographer in the 1950s, William Klein ______ the

conventions of photography by creating images that were high contrast and
included blurred and distorted elements—features generally seen as flaws.
So unorthodox was Klein’s work that he had difficulty finding a publisher
for his now-iconic 1956 photo book Life is Good & Good for You in New
York.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. prevented b. reviewed c. respected d. defied

18.A journalist and well-respected art critic of nineteenth-century Britain, Lady

Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake did not hesitate to publish reviews that went
against popular opinion. One of her most divisive works was an essay
questioning the idea of photography as an emerging medium for fine art: in
the essay, Eastlake ______ that the value of photographs was informational
rather than creative.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. discovered b. doubted c. exposed d. asserted

19.The following text is adapted from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1837 story

“Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment.” The main character, a physician, is
experimenting with rehydrating a dried flower.
At first [the rose] lay lightly on the surface of the fluid, appearing to imbibe none
of its moisture. Soon, however, a singular change began to be visible. The crushed
and dried petals stirred and assumed a deepening tinge of crimson, as if the flower
were reviving from a deathlike slumber.
As used in the text, what does the phrase “a singular” most nearly mean?
a. A lonely b. A disagreeable c. An acceptable d. An extraordinary
 20.Osage Nation citizen Randy Tinker-Smith produced and directed the
ballet Wahzhazhe, which vividly chronicles Osage history and culture.
Telling Osage stories through ballet is ______ choice because two of the
foremost ballet dancers of the twentieth century were Osage: sisters Maria
and Marjorie Tallchief.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. An unpredictable b. an arbitrary c. A determined d. a suitable

21.In 2008 a complete set of ancient pessoi (glass game pieces) was uncovered
from beneath a paving stone in modern-day Israel. Due to their small
size, pessoi were easily misplaced, making a whole set a rare find. This has
led some experts to suggest that the set may have been buried intentionally;
however, without clear evidence, archaeologists are left to ______ what
happened.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Dismiss b. catalog c. speculate about d. expand on

22.In the mid-nineteenth century, some abolitionist newspapers ______

westward migration in the United States; by printing a letter that described
the easy fortunes and high salaries miners could make in California during
the Gold Rush, Frederick Douglass’s newspaper North Star was one such
publication that inspired readers to relocate.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. stimulated b. opposed c. disregarded d. assigned

23.The following text is adapted from Mohsin Hamid’s 2017 novel Exit West.
Saeed lives with his mother and father.
On cloudless nights after a daytime rain, Saeed’s father would sometimes bring out
the telescope, and the family would sip green tea on their balcony, enjoying a
breeze, and take turns to look up at objects whose light, often, had been emitted
before any of these three viewers had been born—light from other centuries, only
now reaching Earth.
As used in the text, what does the phrase “reaching” most nearly mean?
a. consulting with b. arriving at c. clinging to d. running to

24.Mineralogical differences are detectable in samples collected from two

locations on the near-Earth asteroid Ryugu, but such differences may not
 indicate substantial compositional variations in the
asteroid. Cosmochemist Kazuhide Nagashima and colleagues note that at the
small scale of the samples, the distribution of minerals is unlikely to be
______.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Redundant b. neglected c. Uniform d. ongoing

25.The following text is from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great
Gatsby.
[Jay Gatsby] was balancing himself on the dashboard of his car with that
resourcefulness of movement that is so peculiarly American—that comes, I
suppose, with the absence of lifting work in youth and, even more, with the
formless grace of our nervous, sporadic games. This quality was continually
breaking through his punctilious manner in the shape of restlessness.
As used in the text, what does the word “quality” most nearly mean?
a. characteristic b. standard c. prestige d. accomplishment

26. Some foraging models predict that the distance bees travel when foraging
will decline as floral density increases, but biologists Shalene Jha and Claire
Kremen showed that bees’ behaviour is inconsistent with this prediction if
flowers in dense patches are ______: bees will forage beyond patches of low
species richness to acquire multiple resource types.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Depleted b. homogeneous c. immature d. dispersed

27.While scholars believe many Mesoamerican cities influenced each other,

direct evidence of such influence is difficult to ascertain. However, recent
excavations in` a sector of Tikal (Guatemala) unearthed a citadel that shows
______ Teotihuacan (Mexico) architecture—including a near replica of a
famed Teotihuacan temple—providing tangible evidence of outside
influence in portions of Tikal.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. Refinements of b. Precursors of c. Commonalities with d.
animosities towards
 28.While most animals are incapable of passing somatic mutations—genetic
alterations that arise in an organism’s nonreproductive cells—on to their
offspring, elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) presents an intriguing ______:
in a 2022 study, researchers found that elkhorn coral produced offspring that
inherited somatic mutations from a parent.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?

a. corroboration b. hypothesis c. affinity d. anomaly

29.Rejecting the premise that the literary magazine Ebony and Topaz (1927)
should present a unified vision of Black American identity, editor Charles S.
Johnson fostered his contributors’ diverse perspectives by promoting their
authorial autonomy. Johnson’s self-effacement diverged from the editorial
stances of W.E.B. Du Bois and Alain Locke, whose decisions for their
publications were more ______.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. ambiguous b. dogmatic c. proficient d. Unpretentious

30.As a poet, essayist, and novelist, Ocean Vuong's work often explores ______
themes, including memory and trauma. His debut novel, On Earth We're
Briefly Gorgeous, is presented as a series of deeply personal letters written
by a son to his mother and was described by The New Yorker as
"[brimming] with longing and tenderness."
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?

a. Frivolous b. Intimate c. pretentious d. Conformist

31.The following text is adapted from Zora Neale Hurston’s 1921 short story
“John Redding Goes to Sea.” John wants to travel far beyond the village
where he lives near his mother, Matty.
[John] had on several occasions attempted to reconcile his mother to the notion,
but found it a difficult task. Matty always took refuge in self-pity and tears. Her
son’s desires were incomprehensible to her, that was all.
As used in the text, what does the phrase “reconcile his mother to” most nearly
mean?
 (Choice A)
Get his mother to accept
(Choice B)
Get his mother to apologize for
(Choice C)
Get his mother to match
(Choice D)
Get his mother to reunite with

32.Economist Marco Castillo and colleagues showed that nuisance costs—the

time and effort people must spend to make donations—reduce charitable
giving. Charities can mitigate this effect by compensating donors for
nuisance costs, but those costs, though variable, are largely ______ donation
size, so charities that compensate donors will likely favour attracting a few
large donors over many small donors.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?
a. predictive of b. subsumed in c. independent of d.
supplemental to

33.Investigating whether shared false visual memories—specific but inaccurate

and widely held recollections of images such as product logos—are caused
by people’s previous ______ incorrect renditions of the images, researchers
Deepasri Prasad and Wilma Bainbridge found that, in fact, such memories
are often not explained by familiarity with erroneous versions of the images.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or
phrase?

a. criteria for b. forfeiture of c. compliance with d. exposure

to