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When a reader encounters an unknown word or phrase in a text, context clues are anything in the text that helps them understand or guess the meaning of it. It can be synonyms, antonyms, explanations, examples, or familiar word-parts (prefix or suffix). [10] It can be definitions, comparisons, or contrasts. [11]
Cryptic crossword clues consist typically of a definition and some type of word play. Cryptic crossword clues need to be viewed two ways. One is a surface reading and one a hidden meaning. [27] The surface reading is the basic reading of the clue to look for key words and how those words are constructed in the clue. The second way is the hidden ...
A proverbial phrase or expression is a type of conventional saying similar to a proverb and transmitted by oral tradition. The difference is that a proverb is a fixed expression, while a proverbial phrase permits alterations to fit the grammar of the context. [1] [2] In 1768, John Ray defined a proverbial phrase as:
German – Wenn Schweine fliegen können! is identical with the English saying "when pigs fly", although the older proverb Wenn Schweine Flügel hätten, wäre alles möglich ("if pigs had wings, everything would be possible") is in more common use, often modified on the second part to something impossible, like "if pigs had wings, even your ...
An idiom is a common word or phrase with a figurative, non-literal meaning that is understood culturally and differs from what its composite words' denotations would suggest; i.e. the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words (although some idioms do retain their literal meanings – see the example "kick the bucket" below).
("The wise tell us that a nail keeps a shoe, a shoe a horse, a horse a man, a man a castle, that can fight.") [7] For sparinge of a litel cost, Fulofte time a man hath lost, The large cote for the hod. ("For sparing a little cost often a man has lost the large coat for the hood.") [8] [whose translation?] [9]
Drawing up a comprehensive list of words in English is important as a reference when learning a language as it will show the equivalent words you need to learn in the other language to achieve fluency. A big list will constantly show you what words you don't know and what you need to work on and is useful for testing yourself.
For more than 50 years, crosswords were the only word puzzle that had a universally accepted name, but since the 1970s another has emerged and, in 1999, the new teaser was given a name. The word "ditloid" is not yet in the Oxford English Dictionary, but a Google search for "ditloid" produces tens of thousands of results.