context

American  

[kon-tekst] / ˈkɒn tɛkst /

noun

• contexts
  plural

1. the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage, usually influencing its meaning or effect.

   You have misinterpreted my remark because you took it out of context.

2. the set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.

   Synonyms:

   climate, milieu, background

3. Mycology. the fleshy fibrous body of the pileus in mushrooms.

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context British  

/ ˈkɒntɛkst /

noun

1. the parts of a piece of writing, speech, etc, that precede and follow a word or passage and contribute to its full meaning

   it is unfair to quote out of context

2. the conditions and circumstances that are relevant to an event, fact, etc

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Usage

What is context? Context is a noun that means the parts of a statement that immediately precede or follow a specific section of the statement and help explain that section. The context of a specific text clarifies the meaning of that text, as in When the politician was asked to apologize for lying, he claimed that he had been quoted out of context and that he wasn’t actually lying. Context is also the conditions related to an event or situation that helps a person understand the event or situation. Conditions can include surroundings (where something took place), circumstances (what else was happening at the time), and background (such as events that happened before). For example, the context of a historical event, such as what else was happening at the time and how people understood their environment, can help us better understand the event itself. One common expression that uses word context is context clues. Context clues are hints within a piece of writing that help us understand something unfamiliar, such as a word. For example, if you came across the word ethereal in a text, context clues could help you figure out that it means "delicate" and "beautiful." Another common expression that includes the word context is out of context. This expression is used to explain that the reason people understood a statement or text incorrectly was because the statement was removed from its surrounding text, which distorted its meaning. Example: Understanding the historical and scientific contexts of the Romantic period are essential to understanding Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.”

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• contextless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• contexts
  plural

Etymology

Origin of context

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Latin contextus “a joining together, scheme, structure,” past participle of contexere “to join by weaving,” equivalent to con- con- + texere “to plait, weave”; cf. text

Explanation

Context means the setting of a word or event. If your friend is furious at you for calling her your worst enemy, remind her that the context of those remarks was Opposite Day. Context comes from the Latin for how something is made. It was first used to talk about writing, as in "the beautiful phrase occurs in the context of the concluding paragraph." We use it now to talk about any circumstance in which something happens. You might say that you can't understand what happens without looking at the context. When someone takes your words but makes it sound like you meant something else, they've taken your words out of context.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

context contexts

And it left me with a question: Why is our mental-health system so quick to diagnose and so slow to examine the full context of a person’s suffering?

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

This public forum thing is a little bit complicated in this context because there are actually multiple public forums here.

From Slate ● Sep. 30, 2026

The men talk ceaselessly—about longevity, about their careers—and carouse liberally, but even the most quotidian of their remarks acquires a poetic gravity in the context of the film.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

"It gives you the feeling of a truce, of something very positive in a context that is anything but positive, because everything feels anxiety-inducing."

From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026

Marc Mauer, the executive director of the Sentencing Project, notes that what is most remarkable about the moratorium campaign in retrospect is the context of imprisonment at the time.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

"Community Notes are not enough in contexts of high disinformation," it said, calling on Meta "to complement, not replace, independent verification."

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

“We looked specifically at meows in two contexts: separation from their human in an unfamiliar environment, and then the human’s return,” Schwartz says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026

For this year, Kering continues to target a return to growth and an improvement in margins, but noted that the geopolitical and economic contexts remain uncertain.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

"I think one problem is that people are overgeneralising it and using it in contexts where it might not be the best framework to explain our behaviour," he says.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026

In so-called intentional contexts like the above, the substitution doesn’t always work.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos

Related Words

• background
• situation
• text