Words in Context
How the SAT tests this, with worked examples — plus the 3 skills it covers. Free to read, no account needed.
These questions blank out a word and ask which choice fits. You are not being tested on vocabulary you may never have met — you are being tested on reading the sentence around the blank.
Predict your own word before looking at the choices. The two questions below show why.
Worked examples
The following text is adapted from Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby-Dick". The narrator describes the ocean's power: "The waves rolled with a slow, indomitable grandeur, as though the sea itself were an ancient titan, undefeated and untiring in its eternal struggle."
As used in the text, what does the word "indomitable" most nearly mean?
- ACalm
- Bpredictable
- CImpossible to defeat
- DTemporary
The sentence supplies its own definition: undefeated and untiring in its eternal struggle. Predict from that alone — something like "unbeatable".
(C) is correct.
(A) contradicts struggle and titan.
(B) describes regularity, which the passage never mentions.
(D) is the opposite of eternal.
You never needed to know the word. The clue sat a few words later.
(C) is correct.
(A) contradicts struggle and titan.
(B) describes regularity, which the passage never mentions.
(D) is the opposite of eternal.
You never needed to know the word. The clue sat a few words later.
In the realm of healthcare, the development of innovative medical technologies has revolutionized patient care, leading to improved outcomes and diminished mortality rates. Advances in areas such as telemedicine and precision medicine are _________ the landscape of healthcare delivery.
Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word or phrase?
- Aenhancing
- Breshaping
- Cmaintaining
- Dsimplifying
The previous sentence says these technologies have revolutionized patient care. The blank should carry that same force — a fundamental change in form.
(B) is correct: reshaping matches "revolutionized".
(A) is too weak; enhancing means improving something that stays as it was.
(C) means keeping it unchanged, the opposite of what the passage says.
(D) is plausible-sounding but unsupported — nothing suggests healthcare became simpler.
This is the harder variety: more than one choice is positive, so only precision separates them. Note that the first question's clue was a definition, while this one's was a single earlier word.
(B) is correct: reshaping matches "revolutionized".
(A) is too weak; enhancing means improving something that stays as it was.
(C) means keeping it unchanged, the opposite of what the passage says.
(D) is plausible-sounding but unsupported — nothing suggests healthcare became simpler.
This is the harder variety: more than one choice is positive, so only precision separates them. Note that the first question's clue was a definition, while this one's was a single earlier word.
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