SAT® · Reading and Writing: Craft and Structure
Secondary and Tertiary Dictionary Senses
Common words carry several dictionary senses, and the test sentence always wants one specific one. You find it by testing each sense against the exact phrasing around the word until only one still makes sense.
A short, everyday word like reservation or commission or entertain didn't earn five dictionary entries by accident. Over time a word picks up new, related meanings while keeping the old ones, so the dictionary lists them all, usually ordered by how common or how old each sense is. A sentence only ever activates one of those senses at a time, and the test question is really asking you to find which one the surrounding words demand.
The method is to treat the sentence like a filter. Read the clause containing the word and ask what role it needs to play: is it an object, a feeling, an action? Then run down the numbered senses one by one and cross out any that would make the sentence mean something absurd or contradictory. The sense that survives is the answer. Phrases right next to the word usually carry the real clue: a word like 'without' or 'despite' or a colon that defines a term often tells you exactly which shade of meaning is in play.
This skill sits next to the section's work on text structure and on paired passages, because all three ask you to read precisely rather than skim for a general topic. Where structure questions want you to see how a paragraph is built, sense questions want you to see how a single word is built to carry different jobs. Both reward slow, careful rereading of the exact words on the page instead of relying on a first impression.
Key terms
- Sense
- One distinct meaning a word carries, usually numbered separately in a dictionary entry.
- Context clue
- A nearby word or phrase that signals which sense of a word is being used.
- Polysemy
- The property of a single word having multiple related meanings.
- Denotation
- The specific, literal meaning a word carries in a given use, as opposed to its broader associations.
Watch it explained
- How it worksHow do you walk down a word's numbered senses until only one survives the sentence around it?
- Worked exampleFind which sense of 'reservation' fits 'She accepted the offer without reservation' out of the four it carries.
- Common mistakeWhy isn't the first entry in a dictionary the sense a test sentence is most likely to be using?
Check yourself
End of topic.