context

con·text

noun \ˈkän-ˌtekst\

Definition of CONTEXT

1

: the parts of a discourse that surround a word or passage and can throw light on its meaning

2

: the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs : environment, setting <the historical context of the war>

— con·text·less \-ˌtekst-ləs\ adjective

— con·tex·tu·al \kän-ˈteks-chə-wəl, kən-, -chəl, -chü-əl\ adjective

— con·tex·tu·al·ly adverb

Examples of CONTEXT

1. We need to look at the event within the larger context of world history.
2. The book puts these events in their proper historical and social contexts.
3. We need to consider these events in context.
4. … it was Dickens who first used the word ‘detective’ in a literary context … —John Mullan, How Novels Work, 2006
5. Entrepreneurship and civil freedoms depend on a context of civil order, predictability, and individual security. —Susan L. Woodward, Balkan Tragedy, 1995
6. … the old building, its original acre, inside its high outer wall, was immune to change, out of context and out of time. —Harriet Doerr, The Tiger in the Grass, 1995

Origin of CONTEXT

Middle English, weaving together of words, from Latin contextus connection of words, coherence, from contexere to weave together, from com- + texere to weave — more at technical

First Known Use: circa 1568

Related to CONTEXT

Synonyms: ambient, atmosphere, climate, clime, environment, contexture, environs, medium, milieu, mise-en-scène, setting, surround, surroundings, terrain

Related Words: location, place, position, space; backdrop, background; element; situation, status; geography, habitat; microenvironment

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Other Literature Terms

apophasis, bathos, bildungsroman, bowdlerize, caesura, coda, doggerel, euphemism, poesy, prosody

Rhymes with CONTEXT

deflexed, inflexed, perplexed, plaintext, pretext, reflexed, subtext, urtext