Context Clues Antonyms

​An Antonym is the opposite of another word. What would be the opposite on Night? Day would be the opposite. What would be the opposite of wet? Dry would be the opposite. Sometimes writers will use antonyms to give you a clue on what an unknown word means.

​Let's learn how a writer will use an antonym to give us a context clue ... something that helps us understand a word we may not know.

​This painting of the landscape is picturesque, while the one of the old house is just plain ugly.

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What do you think the word picturesque means? The sentence is comparing 2 different paintings. One of them is 'just plain ugly'. That tells us that the other one must look good. ​We can conclude that picturesque must mean beautiful, or some other word that would be the opposite of ugly. In this case we are looking for an antonym.

​Let's look at more examples:

Example 1

It was hard to believe that such an erudite man had grown up in such an uneducated, uncultured home.

”Erudite” is contrasted with “uneducated” and “uncultured.”

Example 2

Pedro and Jenny are an odd couple. Pedro is very laconic while Jenny will talk for an hour just to tell you what she had for breakfast.

Pedro’s “laconic” nature is contrasted with the idea that Jenny is very talkative, perhaps talks too much. Being laconic means Pedro is a man of few words.

Example 3

The first was very original and kept the audience interested and entertained. On the other hand, the second was simply insipid.

From the contrast between the presenters, you can tell that “insipid” is the opposite of “original and interesting.”