contextcon‧text /ˈkɒntekst $ ˈkɑːn-/ ●●○ W2 AWL noun [countable, uncountable] 
the political context of the electionplace/put/see etc something in context To appreciate what these changes will mean, it is necessary to look at them in context.in the context of something These incidents are best understood in the broader context of developments in rural society.2the words that come just before and after a word or sentence and that help you understand its meaning: The meaning of ‘mad’ depends on its context.3take/quote something out of context to repeat part of what someone has said or written without describing the situation in which it was said, so that it means something quite different: His comments, taken out of context, seem harsh.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesthe social/political/historical etc context· You often need to understand the cultural context of jokes.a wider/broader/larger context (=a more general situation, set of events etc)· It’s important to look at the story in the wider context of medieval Spain.an international/European/British etc context· We study the work of these artists in their European context.a general context· This problem is occurring within a general context of economic difficulty.verbssee something in the context of something (=consider and understand something in relation to a particular situation)· His life and work must be seen in the context of his youth.look at/examine etc something in context· Although this does not seem to be a good result, let’s examine it in context.put something in/into context (=consider something in context)· These statistics need to be put into context.place/set something in context (=consider something in context)· The issue must be placed within its historical context.provide a context for something· The study provides a context for future research.
WORD ORIGINcontext
Origin:
1400-1500 Latin contextus ‘connection of words’, from contexere ‘to weave together’, from com- ( ➔ COM-) + texere ‘to weave’EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- English words can have several meanings depending on context.
- But all this takes place within a context of direction.
- In this context, a neutron star is effectively a single atomic nucleus.
- It also occurs in the context of political protest.
- It is recognised that in the Catholic school they will also be seen within the context of a wider and life-long catechesis.
- The eucharistic recall of the paschal mystery was simply inserted into this thank-offering context.
- The relationship between the sentence context and the target word varied.
- These must be developed in context, through experiences.
- This makes it absolutely clear that the early road and the drains belong in a mid to late second-century context.
WORD SETS
acronym, nounadage, nounaffricate, nounagglutination, nounalphanumeric, adjectiveanglophone, nounantecedent, nounantonym, nounaphorism, nounarchaism, nounargot, nounaspirate, verbaspirate, nounaspiration, nounassonance, nounbaby talk, nounback, adjectiveback formation, nounbilabial, nounbody language, nouncant, nouncliché, nouncognate, adjectivecognate, nouncollocate, verbcollocation, nouncolloquial, adjectivecombining form, nouncompound, nounconcordance, nounconnotation, nounconsonant, nouncontext, nouncontraction, nouncorpus, noundative, noundeclarative, adjectivedecline, verbdecode, verbdescriptive, adjectivediction, noundiminutive, noundiminutive suffix, noundiphthong, nounelide, verbellipsis, nounelocution, nounemphasis, nounencode, verbenunciate, verb-ese, suffixetymology, nouneuphemism, nouneuphemistic, adjectiveexpression, nounfigurative, adjectivefirst language, nounformal, adjectivefricative, noungender, nounglide, nounglottal stop, nounhard, adjectivehieroglyphics, nounhigh-level, adjectivehomograph, nounhomonym, nounhomophone, nounhyperbole, nounideogram, nounidiolect, nounidiom, nounidiomatic, adjectiveinflection, nounintonation, nounIPA, nounironic, adjectivejargon, nounlabial, nounlanguage, nounlegalese, nounlexical, adjectivelexicography, nounlexicon, nounlexis, nounlingua franca, nounlinguist, nounlinguistic, adjectivelinguistics, nounlip-read, verbloanword, nounlocution, nounlong, adjectivemaxim, nounmetalanguage, nounmispronounce, verbmnemonic, nounmonosyllabic, adjectivemonosyllable, nounmorpheme, nounmorphology, nounnasal, adjectivenasal, nounneologism, nounneutral, adjectivenonce, adjectivenon-standard, adjectivenonverbal, adjectiveofficialese, nounonomatopoeia, nounopen vowel, nounorientalist, nounoxymoron, nounpalindrome, nounparagraph, nounparaphrase, verbparaphrase, nounphilology, nounphoneme, nounphonemics, nounphonetic, adjectivephonetics, nounphonic, adjectivephonology, nounphrasal, adjectivephraseology, nounpidgin, nounplosive, nounpolyglot, adjectivepolysemous, adjectivepolysyllabic, adjectiveportmanteau word, nounpragmatics, nounpreliterate, adjectivepre-verbal, adjectiveprimary stress, nounpronounce, verbpronounceable, adjectivepronunciation, nounproverb, nounpsychobabble, nounReceived Pronunciation, nounrecitation, nounregister, nounretroflex, adjectiveRP, nounschwa, nounsecondary stress, nounsecond language, nounsemantic, adjectivesemantics, nounsemiotics, nounsemi-vowel, nounshort, adjectivesibilant, adjectivesibilant, nounsic, adverbsilent, adjectivesimile, nounslang, nounsound, verbspeech, nounspeech therapy, nounspell, verbspelling, nounspoonerism, nounstandard, adjectivestem, nounstop, nounstress, nounstress, verbstressed, adjectivestress mark, nounstructuralism, nounstylistics, nounsuperlative, nounsyllabic, adjectivesyllable, nounsynonym, nounsynonymous, adjectivetechnical, adjectiveterminology, nounthesaurus, nountone, nountone language, nountoneless, adjectivetongue, nountranscribe, verbtranscription, nountrope, noununpronounceable, adjectiveunstressed, adjectiveunvoiced, adjectiveusage, nounuse, verbuse, nounvelar, adjectivevocabulary, nounvoiceless, adjectivevowel, noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRYadjectives It is important to look at the novel in its historical context.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADJECTIVE
· You often need to understand the cultural context of jokes.
(=a more general situation, set of events etc)· It’s important to look at the story in the wider context of medieval Spain.
· We study the work of these artists in their European context.
· This problem is occurring within a general context of economic difficulty.
verbs (=consider and understand something in relation to a particular situation)· His life and work must be seen in the context of his youth.
· Although this does not seem to be a good result, let’s examine it in context.
(=consider something in context)· These statistics need to be put into context.
(=consider something in context)· The issue must be placed within its historical context.
· The study provides a context for future research.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES (=the ideas, customs etc of a particular place or time)· the cultural context of Europe in the eighteenth century
It is important to look at the novel in its historical context.· In addition, she emphasises the broader historical context of political, technological and cultural change within which photography developed.· General evolution takes place when the broader context itself changes, a process that is both unintentional and willed.· Any work undertaken on an individual basis should always focus attention on the broader social context in which the individual lives.· This is isolation and, in the broader context, the notion of what it means to be an island.· Management control, in its broadest context, is the means by which an organization carries out its objectives effectively and efficiently.· In a broader context, however, these variations have their limits.· The sharp medical edge of her lecture would be blunted towards the end by placing the Black Death in its broader context.· I had a broader context than most of the guys who just grew up in the street business.
· No one lives outside a cultural context.· Unfortunately, the core teachings were set in cultural contexts that have been largely superseded.· Even the modest proposal that literature should be read in its cultural context has large implications.· Whatever cultural context is taken, there will be schemata.· Again, these techniques are revealingly similar in widely different cultural contexts.· The processes through which we can see texts functioning within a social and cultural context are problematic.· A consideration of the cultural context of such concept formations is largely absent from his work.· We decode messages in personal, social and cultural contexts.
· We talk in many different contexts about the need to protect young people from various vices in society.· Ideas expressed at many different periods, or in many different contexts, have been assembled into a definitive world view.· A second possibility is that social ranking of wife or housewife roles varies with different socio-economic contexts.· This might include exploiting various language functions in different social contexts, as well as being able to participate in conversations.· Reconciling the demands of different roles in different contexts is not without strain.· Again, these techniques are revealingly similar in widely different cultural contexts.· This quite different context allowed some observers of the city to communicate a view about the squalor of the Victorian legacy.· In their long lives, Marx and Engels faced many different contexts and drew necessarily different tactical conclusions.
· To ask about details before establishing the general context is to approach from the wrong direction.· The conclusion is obvious, that a structural-functional approach can not serve as a general context of explanation.· One effect comes from the use of general knowledge about the world - we will call this a general context effect.· I think the show was good because it covered a lot of ground and put a general feeling in context.· These issues will be considered within the general context of political management.· The effect of the six weeks time limit will be considered within the general context of exclusion of remedies.· It was in this general context that the Unionist attitude to Marconi was set.
· In addition, she emphasises the broader historical context of political, technological and cultural change within which photography developed.· Examining Spenser and Ireland, therefore, raises more questions about relations between literary texts and historical contexts than it resolves.· Both viewpoints are important in a historical context, but not in counselling.· It is proposed to investigate these relationships in historical context applying comparative and quantitative methods.· A hydraulic representation of his system dominated in which the historical evolution and context of Keynes's ideas could find no place.· The historical context in which the evidence is acquired is irrelevant.· Artefacts, works of art and historic buildings need to be considered in their historical and geographical context.· In the case of attitudinal expressions, there are reversals, as rhetorical and historical contexts change.
· Such concerns are most apparent in the case of financial institutions but have also arisen in other contexts.· They are not found in other contexts except in passing modulation.· And if so, why are bees so thoroughly mindless in other contexts?· This seemingly symbiotic link has been damaging to the more general applicability of these criteria in other contexts.· In other contexts, the illuminative observation approach has been used by Oxford Polytechnic with more success.· This threatens the other contexts, personal, political, historical, mentioned above.· In other contexts, Terkel's great virtue is his ability to leave subjects rich and ravelled.· Speech is heavily supported by gestures and other cues from context.
· The powerful company is a rich company and the powerful business person is successful in that particular context.· Personality Personality can be broadly defined as the propensities within an individual to act a certain way, given a particular context.· Most writers have a range of shapes for a given letter depending upon the particular letter context in which it occurs.· Case Study A case study provides students with opportunities for exercising problem solving and decision making skills in a particular context.· They are useful in seeking to record the impact of a development or innovation in a particular context.· This brings us back to the importance of considering the functions which explanations serve in particular contexts.· In summary, interactionism focusses on the process of interaction in particular contexts.· In terms of multimedia, however, there is a particular context to be kept in mind.
· As indicated at the beginning of this chapter, Gelman's plays treat contemporary social and economic themes in their political context.· It should be seen as seven functional stages of the budgetary process which take place in a political or rational context.· Nevertheless, during the 1980-1 events and their aftermath the political context was discussed from a number of perspectives.· National histories and political contexts have to be taken into account.· These manifestations should, however, be studied in their social and political contexts.· This viewpoint must be set within the wider political context.· To put matters in the political context of the time, one instance will suffice.
· However, in the present context, Mr. Philipson's arguments seem to me completely beside the point.· Whatever it was once, it just seems wrong in its present context.· This allows two further propositions in the present context.· Moreover in the present context apart from factor rewards, output levels per firm in the manufacturing sector are also equalized.· Within the present context, however, I shall concentrate on the question of the socialisation of production.· Some work of the former kind altogether avoids social considerations, and passes out of our present context.· But this resistance is weakened in the present context by allegations of misuse of power by the security services.· In the present context, however, there are further provisions.
· However, the drug use of the interview group needs to be placed in its wider social context.· I plan to consider these questions as they relate to the human need to create and maintain self-identity in a social context.· You rarely find consideration of the social context of error, or of its significance in the growth of the writer.· Individuals do not move through a smooth physical vacuum; they negotiate structured social contexts in company with other individuals.· This may provide a social context for the glass.· I have raised them here only in order to put paedophilia into some kind of social context.· She creates her own sequence of images within the larger social context.
· We stress that information only exhibits value when it is put to use in a specific context.· Inevitably, New Historicist case studies of specific texts and specific contexts start to feel like metaphors for the whole culture.· The influence of social networks was also acknowledged, as was the need to solve specific problems in specific contexts.· And each time there is a specific context which itself frames and arguments the information about the individual.· Furthermore, the items selected will usually have rich meanings within specific cultural contexts.· They are actively presenting themselves as readers in this specific context.
· But the Bible sets marriage in a wider context.· It adds up to a picture of a man in a wider context that just as a fighter pilot.· All organisations exist within some wider context and we would expect an organisation's culture to reflect this.· The change depended upon changes in the wider context of controversy, which provoked the development of formerly implicit attitudinal aspects.· And they Learn how to place their learning in a wider context.· Such arrangements have to be seen in a wider context.· Basically there is everything to say, for most roads are not understood at all, at least in their wider context.
VERB· It is now customary to consider reading in this context.· The Committee did not, however, consider the crime in context.· But when you consider this in the context of its well-weighted precision and speed, it gives little cause for complaint.· However, there are a number of other issues to consider in this context 1.· This will be considered in the context of wage and interest-rate equations.· We may also incline to a little charity in considering the context of the four discoveries listed above.· Before you answer this question, consider the context.· This brings us to consider the broader context of industrial conflict.
· While fights may occur in the context of displays of rivalry, the exhibition of the character in question is often sufficient.· Tussive syncope, which usually occurs in the context of bronchitis, consists of loss of consciousness with vigorous coughing.· It also occurs in the context of political protest.· However, when these words occur within a meaningful context, they can easily be read and understood by humans.
· All the topics covered would have to be placed in context but there would be no, say, comparative studies.· And recording artists are being placed in that same context.· To explain the difference between the two structures, they are placed in a realistic context.· This is essential reading for those seeking to place this horror in context and to understand its true meaning.· Statements of harmony, as with statements of conflict, have to be placed in their context.· An activated word might be defined as any word placed in a context such that it takes on emotional intensity.· But their details are often still controversial and their meaning can only be appreciated by placing them in context.· Even so, it has to be placed in context.
· The flow of everyday life provides a context in which individual human consciousness usually operates.· The Demonstration provides a meaningful context in which to introduce and practice these words.· Scholars compare to provide context, make classifications, test hypotheses, and make predictions.· The box set has given stature to popular and obscure artists, by providing context.· They also provide the context for the emergence and multiplication of the better-paid and more specialised trades.· A side benefit is that storing documents by date and time provides context.· The units may be mixed and matched with topics already being delivered in early stages to provide a scientific context.· All this provides an important context for Bush's claims of success.
· The opening of the letter A well-written business letter will start by putting its message into context.· Sometimes, these topics are even handled by sensitive writers who put them into a context that invites debate and reflection.· The groups were put in contexts suggestive in one case of euphoria, in the other of anger.· It aims at amplifying the bare details of physical development and putting these into their context of emotional development and developmental psychology.· The whole absurd situation needs putting into context.· When the population is put in the context of land size, Britain emerges clearly as a crowded island.· Sometimes it is necessary to take bits out because they need special coaching, but always put them back in context.
· Another housemaster in describing what he would ideally like to do also set it in the context of his sense of powerlessness.· Unfortunately, the core teachings were set in cultural contexts that have been largely superseded.· The results will be set in the context of a study of the history of planning theory and urban policy making.· By the end of the year most managers were working to set the context within which their subordinates were working.· Performance in education is complex, controversial and should properly be set in the context of long time scales.· Prioritizing corporate crime has to be set in context.· For even his negative comments about Feuerbach are set in the context of a generous appreciation of the latter's intentions.· This little study, when set in the appropriate context, was turned into a short piece for a local history magazine.
· And so, by means of analogies and comparisons, the foreign can be understood in the context of the homely and the familiar.· The answer lay in an understanding of the larger context: modernity.· Legal theories help us to understand and analyse this context in two ways.· All of this contributes to a new understanding of our context as a dynamic community.· To understand a text, especially a political text, it is necessary to understand its argumentative context.· It is important that the springboard doctrine be understood in its context.· The structure and relationships of the contemporary organs of government can be understood only in historical context.· To decode photographs and advertising images more effectively, it is essential for us to understand their context.
· This paper exemplifies the main bottom-up approach used in this field, and also uses higher-level context.· It is so used in this context.· We stress that information only exhibits value when it is put to use in a specific context.· We will consider how the term fairness is used in an adjudicative context.· In doing so, I offer no rigid model to be used whatever the context.· Black and white imagery has been used in other company contexts at moments of crisis.· The exercises, like the explanations, use realistic contexts.· The problem with adult learners is that they already have strategies for grammatical analysis and can efficiently use context in communication.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRYPHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
- Jennings accused the program of quoting him out of context.
- By confusing unrelated issues and taking information out of context, you do readers a great disservice.
- This has been taken completely out of context.
- As ever, context is important, particularly the wider context of New Testament teaching.
- Both require standing back from the day-to-day running of the organisation and examining the wider picture.
- It is now necessary to situate these in the wider context of the social formation and in particular class structure.
- More broadly, it was placed in the wider context of the continuing ambitions of central government to control local independence.
- That fact must be put in the wider context.
- The change depended upon changes in the wider context of controversy, which provoked the development of formerly implicit attitudinal aspects.
- We would expect leaders at all levels to be aware of the wider context of their work.
- What interpretations of the wider issues should it consider?
WORD FAMILYnouncontextadjectivecontextualverbcontextualizeadverbcontextually
1the situation, events, or information that are related to something and that help you to understand itpolitical/social/historical etc context the political context of the electionplace/put/see etc something in context To appreciate what these changes will mean, it is necessary to look at them in context.in the context of something These incidents are best understood in the broader context of developments in rural society.2the words that come just before and after a word or sentence and that help you understand its meaning: The meaning of ‘mad’ depends on its context.3take/quote something out of context to repeat part of what someone has said or written without describing the situation in which it was said, so that it means something quite different: His comments, taken out of context, seem harsh.COLLOCATIONSadjectivesthe social/political/historical etc context· You often need to understand the cultural context of jokes.a wider/broader/larger context (=a more general situation, set of events etc)· It’s important to look at the story in the wider context of medieval Spain.an international/European/British etc context· We study the work of these artists in their European context.a general context· This problem is occurring within a general context of economic difficulty.verbssee something in the context of something (=consider and understand something in relation to a particular situation)· His life and work must be seen in the context of his youth.look at/examine etc something in context· Although this does not seem to be a good result, let’s examine it in context.put something in/into context (=consider something in context)· These statistics need to be put into context.place/set something in context (=consider something in context)· The issue must be placed within its historical context.provide a context for something· The study provides a context for future research.