This English Language quiz is called 'Determining the Meaning of Unfamiliar Words' and it has been written by teachers to help you if you are studying the subject at middle school. Playing educational quizzes is a fabulous way to learn if you are in the 6th, 7th or 8th grade - aged 11 to 14.
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You will often come across a word, or words, that you are unfamiliar with. When this happens, what can you do to determine what the word means? The hint to determining the word’s meaning can be found in the sentence in which it appears. This is known as the context of the sentence.
For example, let’s look at the following sentence.
“She has a plethora of roses in her yard.”
The word “plethora” may be new to you. What does it mean? Well, look at the sentence to find clues.
In this sentence “She has a plethora of roses.” As the object of the sentence is the roses, you know the word “plethora” has to relate to the roses. Since you do not know the meaning, you will need to try to replace “plethora” with a word or words that you do know. In doing this you can try the following:
“She has a lot of roses in her yard.”
“She has a variety of roses in her yard.”
In this instance both “lot” and “variety” can fit in. In fact, a “variety” also means a “lot” and both mean “many.” The definition of “plethora” is many. By substituting “plethora” with words you know, you have now found the meaning of the word.