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Hi there! I am Studyfin, your learning buddy. Today we will become word detectives and solve the mystery of words with more than one meaning!
Some words look exactly the same but have different meanings. We call these multiple-meaning words. To find the right meaning, we must look at the clues around the word.
Clues in a sentence are called context clues. For example, look at the word 'bat'. If you see words like 'cave' and 'flew', the word 'bat' means a flying animal.
Now look at the same word 'bat' in a new way. If you see words like 'baseball' and 'hit', the word 'bat' means a wooden tool used in sports.
Read this sentence: "The water was very cold, so we decided to walk along the bank instead of swimming." Determine the meaning of the word 'bank' in this sentence.
- Find the target word. The word we need to solve is 'bank'.
- Search for context clues before and after the word. We see 'water', 'cold', 'walk along', and 'swimming'.
- Think about the meanings of 'bank'. It can mean a place to keep money, or the land alongside a river.
- Connect the clues. 'Water' and 'swimming' do not match a money bank. They do match a river bank.
- Choose the correct meaning. In this sentence, 'bank' means the land alongside a body of water.