Using the Sentence to Choose a Meaning

When a word has more than one meaning, the rest of the sentence tells you which one the author means. Look at 'light'. In 'Turn on the light,' light means a lamp. In 'The box is light,' it means not heavy. How do you know?

In the first sentence, 'turn on' is a clue. In the second, a box can be heavy or not heavy, so 'light' must be about weight. Read: 'Please put the seal back in its pool. ' A seal can be a sticker or an animal. The pool is the clue: it's the animal!

• 1Other words in the sentence are clues.
• 2Try each meaning and see which fits.
• 3The right meaning makes the sentence make sense.