VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT 15
Sunday was very different from the indolent Sarah of Saturday (contrast). You also
know what the assiduous Sarah does: She is very, very busy on Sunday, cleaning and
working around the house (specific detail). Assiduous means diligent, hardworking;
or persevering, unremitting.
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
The denotation of a word is simply its dictionary definition. For instance, look at
the dictionary definitions of the following words.
➥ procrastination: to postpone or delay needlessly
➥ lazy: to be resistant to work or exertion; slow moving or sluggish
➥ inactive: not active or not tending to be active; not functioning or operatingSome English words, however, have more than one meaning. A quack, for exam-
ple, is the sound a duck makes, but a quack is also an untrained or unqualified per-
son who pretends to be a doctor.
Words also have another meaning beyond their denotation. Each word also has
a connotation —an implied meaning or emotional impact. Sometimes, the conno-
tation can be favorable or positive. Other times the connotation can be unfavorable
or negative. Then again, some words do not arouse any emotion at all and have a
neutral connotation.
For example, if you were to look up the word playful in the dictionary, you might
get a definition similar to that of two of its synonyms, spirited and mischievous. But
all three of these words have different connotations and bring to mind different
feelings. Spirited has a positive connotation and mischievous a negative connotation,
while playful is neutral in tone.
DEFINITIONS
denotation: a word’s exact meaning or dictionary definition
connotation: a word’s implied meaning or emotional impactWhen you come across an unfamiliar word, the context will often reveal a great
deal about the connotation of that word, even if it does not provide enough infor-
mation for you to determine its denotation. At a minimum, the connotations of the
surrounding words will usually tell you whether the vocabulary word is positive or
negative. Therefore, when you are looking for context clues, make sure you look
at the surrounding words carefully and consider their denotations and connotations.