context

Other forms of context

plural

contexts·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about context

What does context mean?

context means "discourse that surrounds a language unit and helps to determine its interpretation". That is the primary sense; the word has 2 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in context?

context has 2 syllables: con-text. The stress falls on "con". In IPA it is /ˈkɑntɛkst/.

What is another word for context?

Close synonyms include linguistic context, context of use, circumstance, setting. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is context a common word?

context is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.