Word Meaning and Word Choice: How Do They Work Together?
We all have the chance to encounter new and unfamiliar words each day, but students who are still building their vocabularies encounter more new words each day than adults. Since most of them don’t carry dictionaries around with them, students need strategies and techniques to use to be able to understand new words and communicate with others. Two concepts can help: Word meaning and word choice.
Today, we’ll explore word meaning and word choice, why they matter, and how students can use each skill to make sense of the world around them—and the texts they read—every day.
What is word meaning?
Word meaning happens when students assign value or representation to a string of letters. Learning science and linguistics dive much deeper into how and why we assign meaning to words, but for the TL;DR, there are two important types of word meaning to understand:
Semantic word meaning: The literal definition—or denotation—of a word based on its building blocks, like the root, prefix, and suffix.
Foundational word meaning: The meaning in context—or the connotation—of a word based on cultural, historical, and societal associations and implications.
Word meaning vocabulary
Aside from these two definitions of meaning, there are also other vocabulary words associated with teaching students about word meaning. They include:
Root word: The most basic unit of a word without prefixes or suffixes.
Prefix: A letter grouping added to the front of a root word to make a new word. For example, pre- in the word prefix is actually a prefix that means “before.”
Suffix: A letter grouping added to the end of a root word to make a new word. For example, in “serenity,” the suffix -ity means “the quality of.”
Synonyms: Words that mean the same or nearly the same things. For example, run and sprint are synonyms, meaning moving quickly.
Antonyms: Words that mean the opposite or nearly opposite things. For example, smooth and rough are antonyms.
Nonexamples: Examples that don’t match the given definition. For example, “teamwork” is a nonexample of the word “competition.”
Context: The conditions under which an event takes place.
Context clues: information that helps a reader identify the meaning of a word within the conditions set up in the text.
What is word choice?
Word choice is what authors do when they select and use specific words to convey their meaning, point of view, and perspective in a text. The words' weight, specificity, length, and definitions all factor into how someone reads and understands a text. For example, these sentences all have slightly different foundational meanings despite having similar semantic meanings:
She’s funny: This person is humorous.
She’s hilarious: This person is extremely humorous.
She’s silly: This person is humorous in a simple or juvenile way.
She’s witty: This person is humorous because they’re clever or sarcastic.
She’s laughable: This person is someone to laugh at.
The sentiment the author wants to convey influences which of these sentences they may choose when writing.
How do word meaning and word choice work together?
When students assign meaning to a word, they can use it in the proper context and to boost comprehension while reading. It’s a building block for understanding word choice. First, they expand their vocabulary by learning new words, denotations, and connotations. Learning the meaning of words is an ongoing process that doesn’t have an end date. You can learn new words throughout your entire life.
In upper elementary school and beyond, when students have built up a significant vocabulary, they start exploring the nuances of word choice. They often work on this skill in two ways: Analyzing an author’s word choice and making their own choices while writing.
During analysis activities, students use word meanings to decide why authors wrote things as they did. They may consider aspects of the text like:
Credibility: Do the words in the text make the author sound educated and trustworthy on the topic?
Clarity: Do the words in the text make the point clear?
Tone: Do the words in the text affect how the message comes across to the reader?
Uniqueness: Are the words in the text fresh or different, or are there cliches and recycled language?
Conciseness: Does the author use too many words, just enough, or not enough to share their message?
Students can make meaning of the entire passage or text based on what they learn from their analysis.
During writing activities, students use what they know about word meanings to convey their own ideas. They choose the words that best represent what they want to say in each sentence or paragraph.
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6 ways students can identify a word’s meaning
There are plenty of ways students can identify the meanings of new words. To help them practice this skill, use modeling, guided practice, and independent practice opportunities to encourage these strategies in the classroom:
1. Use a dictionary or thesaurus
Dictionaries help students look up new words and find their meanings. Most dictionary entities include the word, its definition, the part of speech, and some information about its linguistic background and semantic meaning. Thesauruses help students find synonyms and antonyms for words but may also include the word’s definition and part of speech.
Teaching students how to use these resources—in print and digital formats—helps them develop the habit of turning to them when they need help defining new words or choosing words while writing. The dictionary is typically more helpful when looking for word meanings, while a thesaurus can help with word choice while writing to pick the most specific words to convey what they mean.
2. Look for context clues
Context clues help students understand new and unfamiliar words, even if they’re not sure of what they mean. There are multiple strategies students can use to find context clues. Some of them include:
Reading the full sentence or paragraph: See if the rest of the words make sense despite the unfamiliar word and make an educated guess about its meaning.
Identify words you do understand: Students can use other words in a sentence to help figure out the part of speech of the unfamiliar word and, potentially, its meaning.
Context clues can also give some hints about word choice. They can tell you more about why the author chose specific words, not just what they mean.
3. Look for visuals
Texts may use visuals as part of the content to provide more context to the words. If a visual accompanies written text, students can use it to help them understand the meaning of new words. For example, if they’re reading about a woolly caterpillar but don’t know what woolly means, an image of the fuzzy bug could provide more context and help explain the definition.
4. Spot prefixes and suffixes
If the unfamiliar words have prefixes and suffixes that students know, it may be easier for students to identify the meanings of new words.
For example, if students know the prefix “anti-” means against, they might be able to figure out that an antibody works against something in the body. If they know the suffix “-ship” means position, they may be able to determine an internship is a position for an intern.
Suffixes can also help students identify the part of speech of a new word. Some indicate nouns, while others indicate verbs or adjectives. Knowing the part of speech of an unfamiliar word can help students decide if it’s a thing, an action, or a descriptor.
5. Identify root words
For words without prefixes or suffixes, root words are another option students can use to identify an unknown word's meaning. Many root words come from Latin or Greek. While students may be unfamiliar with those ancient languages, they may be able to recognize when words share a root.
For example, if they know that the root “cent” means one hundred, they may be able to determine that centimeters and centigrams are both measurements that count by hundreds. To help students learn their prefixes, suffixes, and root words, you can use our Formative Greek and Latin roots and affixes practice sets. Students can practice with flashcards, matching, or quiz mode to learn the meanings of word parts.
6. Ask for help
If students have tried all other options and they still can’t figure out a word’s meaning, they can always ask for help. Students can ask a teacher, aide, librarian, parent, caregiver, or a peer for the definition of an unfamiliar word.
Instead of just giving the definition, some of these helpers may also encourage students to use the tools above and provide guidance on picking the right resources to get the information they need.
Help students with word meaning and word choice using Newsela ELA
Newsela ELA has various tools and supports to help you teach word meaning and word choice in your classrooms. Some of these features include:
Power Words: Our Power Words feature provides student-friendly definitions and activities to encourage in-context vocabulary practice.
Subject-specific vocabulary: Besides Power Words, you can share AI-generated subject-specific vocabulary definitions that appear when you assign an article to students.
Annotations: Use annotations to model how to highlight unfamiliar words and the context clues students can use to help them make sense. Shareable annotations also let you provide additional context to unfamiliar words before assigning an article.
Read aloud mode: Our read-aloud feature lets students listen to a text and hear how unfamiliar words and new vocabulary sound when spoken.
Leveled text: Expand students' vocabulary with content published at five reading levels with level control for teachers. As the text complexity increases, so does the complexity of the Power Words and subject-specific vocabulary.
ELA Standards and Skills Collection: This collection has resources to teach word meaning and choice to elementary and secondary students using fiction and nonfiction texts.
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