Which is a type of context clue?

• A. Pun.
• B. Metaphor.
• C. Rhyme.
• D. Inference.

Answer: (D)

Context clues help you figure out what a new word means by using the words around it. One common way is inference: you use the surrounding details to guess the meaning of the word.

For example, the boy trudged through the heavy snow, his boots dragging and sinking with every step. From this, you can infer that trudged means walked slowly and with effort.

Puns, metaphors, and rhymes are different language tools. A pun is playful wordplay based on multiple meanings, a metaphor is a direct comparison that isn’t literal, and a rhyme is about sounds at the ends of words. They aren’t the way you deduce an unfamiliar word’s meaning from surrounding text, which is why inference is the correct type of context clue here.