Vocabulary: context clues, word parts, and figurative language (grade 6) · lesson

Context clues

💡 The words around an unknown word often tell you what it means.

Context clues are hints in nearby sentences. Look at what happens right before or after the word.

Sometimes the clue is a contrast. If one person is quiet and another acts the opposite way, the new word means the opposite of quiet.

Try each answer in place of the word. The right one makes the whole passage make sense.

🧠 Let's work it out

"After the race, Leo was parched. He drank three glasses of water." What does "parched" mean?

The clue is that he drank a lot of water.
So "parched" means very thirsty.
Plug it in: "Leo was very thirsty." It fits.

What do you think comes next?

context clue: a hint in nearby words that helps explain a new word

🔗 Khan Academy: Vocabulary (grade 6) · Khan Academy ↗

Prefixes and roots

💡 Breaking a word into its parts lets you build its meaning.

A prefix is added to the front of a word. "Un-" means not. "Re-" means again. "Pre-" means before. "Mis-" means wrongly.

A root is the core part of a word, often from Greek or Latin. "Tele" means far. "Scope" means to look at. A telescope lets you look at far things.

Put the parts together, then check that the meaning fits the sentence.

🧠 Let's work it out

What is "rewrite"?

"Re-" means again, so rewrite means write again.
To make a word, add the prefix to the base: "pre-" + "heat" = "preheat," to heat before.

What do you think comes next?

prefix: a word part added to the front of a word
root: the main part of a word that carries its meaning
suffix: a word part added to the end, like -able

Personification

💡 Personification gives human actions or feelings to something that is not human.

Writers sometimes describe things as if they were people. "The house sighed in the wind." Houses can't sigh, but the line makes you hear it creak.

To spot it, ask: is a thing doing something only a person can do? Talking, crying, laughing, and dancing are human actions.

Do not confuse it with a simile. A simile uses "like" or "as."

🧠 Let's work it out

Which is personification? A: "The leaves danced in the wind." B: "The leaves were as red as fire."

Leaves can't really dance, so A gives them a human action.
B uses "as" to compare, so it is a simile.

What do you think comes next?

personification: giving human actions or feelings to a thing

Connotation: the feeling a word carries

💡 Words with the same basic meaning can feel positive, neutral, or negative.

Denotation is a word's dictionary meaning. Connotation is the feeling that comes with it.

"Youthful" and "childish" both mean acting young. "Youthful" sounds like a compliment. "Childish" sounds like an insult.

To compare words, ask: would someone be happy to be called this?

🧠 Let's work it out

A dog barks a lot. Is it "lively" or "noisy"?

Both describe the same dog.
"Lively" sounds fun, so it is positive.
"Noisy" sounds annoying, so it is negative.

What do you think comes next?

connotation: the feeling a word gives
denotation: the dictionary meaning of a word

Analogies

💡 An analogy is solved by naming how the first pair is related, then finding the same link.

An analogy looks like "A is to B as C is to D." The two pairs are related in the same way.

First, say the link between A and B in a sentence. "A leaf is part of a tree." Then use the same sentence for C: "A feather is part of a ___."

Common links are part to whole, kind of thing, and opposites.

🧠 Let's work it out

"Leaf is to tree as feather is to ___."

Link: a leaf is part of a tree.
So a feather is part of a bird.
"Nest" is tempting, because birds live in nests. But a feather is not part of a nest.
The part-of link points to "bird."

What do you think comes next?

analogy: a pair of words related in the same way as another pair