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Words in context

Choose the word or phrase that best fits the meaning and tone of a specific sentence in a passage.

Craft and StructureReading and Writing
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What the SAT actually asks

You fill a blank in a short passage with the word or short phrase that fits best. The passage supplies clues through contrast, definition, example, or cause and effect, and your job is to figure out the meaning the blank needs before considering vocabulary. Some blanks test a common word used in a precise sense, and some test a less common word. A related question type asks what a word already in the passage most nearly means in that particular sentence.

Craft and Structure is about 28 percent of the 54 reading and writing questions, and words in context is the largest piece, usually around 5 to 8 questions.

Where students lose points

How to attack these questions

  1. 1Cover the choices and write your own word in the blank based only on the passage.
  2. 2Identify the logical relationship in the sentence, such as contrast, restatement, or cause, and require the answer to match it.
  3. 3Plug each remaining choice back into the full sentence and read it aloud in your head rather than judging the word alone.

Example questions

Written for this skill, with the answer explained. 237 more are in the app.

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Words in context
Real question

Sloths climb down from their trees about once a week to defecate, a trip that costs an enormous share of their weekly energy and exposes them to predators on the ground. Biologists have long found the behavior ______, since no clear benefit to the sloth has ever been identified.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

Medium

The first printing of Amara Kiplagat's memoir contained a date error on page four. Rather than reset the entire book, the publisher issued a single corrected line to be pasted over the mistake in the remaining copies. The fix was ______: it repaired one sentence and left the rest of the volume untouched.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

  • A) sweeping
  • B) elaborate
  • C) provisional
  • D) targeted ✓

Why: The publisher issued "a single corrected line to be pasted over the mistake," a fix that "repaired one sentence and left the rest of the volume untouched," which is a narrowly aimed correction, exactly what "targeted" means. "sweeping" and "elaborate" both describe a large or complicated response, the opposite of pasting in one corrected line while resetting nothing else. "provisional" would suggest the fix was temporary and meant to be replaced later, but nothing in the passage indicates the pasted line was anything but a permanent solution to the one error, so none of these three matches a small, precisely aimed repair.

Medium

A mathematics teacher in Seoul grades her students' reasoning, not their final answers. A student who reaches the right number by an unsound route earns less credit than one who reasons well and slips in arithmetic. Her grading treats a correct answer as ______: something that can come from sound reasoning or from luck, and so not proof of understanding on its own.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

  • A) worthless
  • B) forbidden
  • C) inconclusive ✓
  • D) decisive

Why: The colon spells out the meaning: a correct answer "can come from sound reasoning or from luck, and so not proof of understanding on its own," which is precisely what "inconclusive" describes, evidence that does not settle the question. "decisive" is the direct opposite of evidence that fails to prove anything on its own. "worthless" overstates the point, since the teacher still grades the work and the passage only denies that a correct answer alone proves understanding, not that it counts for nothing. "forbidden" has no support anywhere in the passage, which never suggests correct answers are disallowed.

Medium

The committee's summary of the dispute runs to a single page. It states each side's position in two sentences, notes the one fact both sides accept, and identifies the two questions on which they disagree. Nothing is omitted that either party considers essential. The document is ______ without being incomplete.

Which choice completes the text with the most logical and precise word?

  • A) condensed ✓
  • B) sparse
  • C) truncated
  • D) curtailed

Why: The summary states each side's position in "two sentences," notes "the one fact both sides accept," and identifies "the two questions on which they disagree," yet "Nothing is omitted that either party considers essential," so it compresses the dispute while keeping everything necessary, which is what "condensed" means. "truncated" and "curtailed" both imply material has been cut off or left out before it was finished, directly contradicting the statement that "Nothing is omitted." "sparse" suggests thinness or a lack of substance, but the document is described as complete on every point that matters, just stated briefly, so none of these three fits a summary that is short by compression rather than by omission.

Questions students ask

How do I study vocabulary for SAT words in context?

Focus on moderately common words used precisely rather than rare words. The test rewards knowing shades of meaning, such as the difference between undermine, contradict, and complicate. Reading the sentence for its logic first matters more than raw word lists.

What if I do not know any of the words in the choices?

Work out the meaning the blank needs, including whether it should be positive, negative, or neutral, then eliminate any word whose charge is clearly wrong. Word roots and how you have seen a word used elsewhere can narrow the rest.

Does the most difficult word tend to be the answer?

No. The answer is whichever word matches the meaning the passage sets up, and that is often the simplest option. Difficulty of the word is not a signal either way.

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