Words in Context Questions and Strategies for SAT Reading
What are the best ways to approach answering these questions? In this article, I'll go over the basics of
words in context questions, and then transition into more in-depth discussions of each of the two types
(complete with examples, both official and homemade). Finally, I'll end with suggesting strategies to use
when tackling these types of questions.
What Are Words In Context Questions?
Words in context questions are the questions on SAT Reading passages that question you directly about
vocabulary in the context of a paragraph.
From my review of dozens of official SAT practice tests, I've come to the conclusion that there are two
ways the SAT Reading passages will question you on vocabulary:
1. Based on how the word is used in the passage, what does that word mean?
2. How would you sum up the meaning of a few lines or a paragraph, using one word as your answer?
Read on for a more detailed look at each of these types of vocab in context questions.
Question Type 1. What’s The Meaning of the Word in Context?
These questions are probably among the most straightforward of all the SAT Reading questions. I like to
think of them as asking “Here’s the word – what’s the definition?” Of course, just because the
questions are straightforward it doesn’t mean that they can't be tricky, but the way the questions are
phrased themselves is pretty simple. In fact, they are almost always asked in one of the following ways:
 In line 42, “stake” most nearly means…
 In the context of line 42, the phrase “dark husband to the midnight” means…
(I've altered the actual words asked by official SAT questions here, but you get the picture).
Why does the SAT use the phrase "most nearly," rather than always just straight up asking "what does
this word mean?" I believe there are two reasons:
1. The phrase is designed to trick you into picking an answer that kind of works (after
all, stake only has to NEARLY mean the answer choice, right?)
2. It’s the SAT’s way of covering its butt (nope, you can't just pick AN answer that works, you have
to pick the BEST answer out of the available choices).
Most often, these "Here's the word, what's the definition?" questions are about words that have multiple
meanings. Since the SAT wants to trick you into rushing into thinking you know the answer, the test often
will include an answer choice that is accurate for SOME definition of the word, just not the way it’s used
in the passage. Here’s an example, taken verbatim from an official SAT practice test.
Adapted from a post by Laura Staffaroni on the PrepScholar blog (May 29, 2015)
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Just going off the top of my head, the word “follow” can probably be used to mean any of the answers,
depending on context. In order to figure out what it means in line 34, you're going to have to go back to
the passage. The source sentence for this question reads as follows:
“I came to realize that if I were able to record part of the dance – that is, the spoken part – and reenact it, the rest of the body
would follow.” (lines 31-34)
How would you solve this question? First, replace the word with your own definition so that you have a
preconception of what you're looking for: "I realized that if I could record the spoken part of the dance
and reenact it, the rest of my body would be able to do it, too." As you can see, the rephrasing does not
have to be super elegant, just accurate.
Next, substitute answers into your rephrased sentence. The answer should look something like what you
rephrased in the first step. For this question, only “join in” works ("I realized that if I could record the
spoken part of the dance and reenact it, the rest of my body would join in").
Want to see another example? No problem! Here’s a trickier example I’ve based on an actual SAT
question (although I took some liberties with the topic).
Example A:
“The relationship of the vampire and his assistant seemed to have been reversed, and Igor, now in his early twenties, was the
authoritative one; since boyhood he had been taking on one responsibility after another, until he had left the vampire with
nothing to perplex him but how to while away the hours when the servants were busy and Igor was out searching for brains.”
In this sentence, “perplex” most nearly means…
(A) trouble
(B) bewilder
(C) astonish
(D) entangle
(E) embarrass
If you replaced the word “perplex” with any of the answer choices, it would make thematic sense. After
all, since Igor’s taking over all the responsibilities there, it’s POSSIBLE there could be nothing to
bewilder, astonish, entangle, or embarrass the vampire. In addition, doesn’t “perplex” sometimes have
something to do with bewilder or astonish?
Danger! Danger! This is all part of the SAT’s Cunning Plan™ (not actually trademarked) to trap you!
Do NOT answer the question based on things that “could be right,” depending on information you
do not know.
Imagine you're a cranky English teacher, grading student interpretations of a book read for class. You're
not a generous teacher who’s looking for reason to give a student points any way you can because she
argued the point. No, you're looking for reasons to mark answers as WRONG.
Take that mindset into the SAT Reading with you: Only the answer that is directly supported by the
context of the passage is acceptable. In this case, the answer is (A) trouble: the vampire has no
responsibilities to worry about and so has nothing to bother, or trouble, him. Even though all the other
answer choices technically mean "perplex," no other answer choice fits in the context of this sentence.
This is the key point of this class of question.
Adapted from a post by Laura Staffaroni on the PrepScholar blog (May 29, 2015)
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Sometimes, instead of asking about individual words, the SAT Reading will question you about multiple
words, making the question more like "Here's the phrase, what's the meaning?"
Example B:
In these cases, you're being asked to define a phrase with another phrase. Either way, however, both word
in context and phrase in context questions should be approached in the same way: always, always go
back to the line in which the word or phrase appears – don’t let the SAT fool you into answering
without checking!
Question Type 2. What Word Is Defined By The Passage?
These questions ask you to recognize the definition in the passage and relate it to the answer
choice that matches it. In contrast to the previous question type of word-in-context question, I think of
these as asking “Here’s the definition, what’s the word?”
The SAT has various ways of asking these questions other than: “here’s the word, what’s the meaning?”
I've written up below a short list of examples that I've come across in my review of SAT practice tests.
Disclaimer: I have edited the questions so that they all refer to the same subject matter; these are not
questions that appeared on the actual SAT.
 The public’s response described in lines 42 most strongly suggest that Dracula’s acts were…
 Based on the description in the last sentence, Dracula could best be characterized as…
 In lines 42, Dracula is portrayed as…
 The author uses the word “monster” (line 42) to convey the narrator’s sense of…
 The author characterizes a “vampire” (line 42) as something…
 In lines 42, the author describes vampires as…
 The information in the second paragraph indicates that the vampire’s “modern reputation” is…
 The second paragraph indicates that Dracula believes the “proper state” would be one of…”
"What word is defined by the passage?" questions can actually be easier than the "here's the word, what's
the definition?" questions. Why? Because since the definitions are in paragraph form, you may be
able to gather more information to help answer the question. Here's another actual SAT example (this
time unmodified):
Adapted from a post by Laura Staffaroni on the PrepScholar blog (May 29, 2015)
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If you know the definition of the word “elitist,” that can be an easy shortcut to the answer: Plato was an
elitist, which probably means he was characterized by (E) snobbishness. If you don’t know what elitist
means, however, the author goes on to explain further in the rest of the paragraph: Plato wanted to
ban things for being free, accessible, and popular…that sounds snobby. Okay, (E) snobbishness it is.
Strategies To Master Words In Context Questions
So what strategies can you use to master these two types of questions? I've put together a 3-step strategy
guide below.
Strategy 1. Rephrase the information given.
For questions that ask about words in context, define the word first in your head (or on scrap paper,
whichever is easier) in the context of the sentence or paragraph, without looking at the answer choices.
Remember, your rephrasing does not have to be elegant as long as it conveys the meaning. For instance,
take a look at
Example C:
"This article effectively concedes that Stoker’s magnificent story cannot be recovered from the misuse and distortion it has
suffered since his death."
In this line, "suffered" most nearly means…
My thought process: Let me replace the word with one that keeps the meaning of the sentence. “This
article effectively concedes that Stoker’s magnificent story cannot be recovered from the misuse and
distortion it has had to deal with (in a negative and painful sense) since his death.” Yeah, that works.
For questions that ask you to take a paragraph and choose the best answer that describes it, answer the
question in your own words before looking at the answer choices.
Adapted from a post by Laura Staffaroni on the PrepScholar blog (May 29, 2015)
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Example D:
My thought process: Question is asking about the education described in these lines. Okay, what does
the paragraph say? In college there’s assigned reading, but the important thing is when students discover
books on their own and jump back and forth across history, languages, and cultures. That sounds like a
diverse education to me. Okay, I’ve got that, now I can look at the answer choices.
Strategy 2. Cross out answers that clearly don’t fit.
Sometimes, you can get to the right answer just by knowing what the wrong answers are. This is an
especially useful strategy if there's an answer choice with a word that you don't know the meaning of. If
you know that the other three answers are definitely wrong, it doesn't matter that you don't know
what the meaning of the fourth answer is; by process of elimination, it must the correct choice.
Strategy 3. Plug the definition back in.
Double check that your reasoning was sound and that your answer choice is the best choice. This strategy
works best for the "here's the word, what's the meaning?" questions, because word-for-word substitutions
are a lot simpler than word-to-sum-up-entire-paragraphs-of-information substitutions.
Adapted from a post by Laura Staffaroni on the PrepScholar blog (May 29, 2015)
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