Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grades 9-10 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Language · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026
What L.9-10.4 Means in Plain English
Ninth and tenth graders who meet an unfamiliar word use the sentence’s logic and the word’s job in it, then the word’s family (analyze, analysis, analytical) to find its meaning and part of speech. A dictionary confirms the meaning, pronunciation and origin, and the sentence confirms the fit.
Eighth graders (L.8.4) leaned on Greek and Latin roots like the cede in precede and secede. Grades 9 and 10 ask how endings change a word’s meaning and part of speech, and add etymology. In grades 11 and 12 (L.11-12.4), references also settle a word’s standard usage.
L.9-10.4 I Can Statements
I can use a sentence’s logic to work out an unfamiliar word.
I can use word families like analyze and analytical correctly.
I can check a word’s meaning and origin, then test it.
L.9-10.4 Worked Example
One word from a history textbook, two attempts at it, and the word family the strong attempt puts to use.
Prompt
Work out mitigate in this sentence from a world history textbook, then fill the blank with the right form of the word. “The treaty did little to mitigate tensions along the border; within a year, both sides had doubled their garrisons.” Blank: “Historians call the war that followed an ____ disaster.”
Not YetMitigate means to start or cause, because the treaty caused tensions. The war was a mitigate disaster.The guess ignores what the sentence says happened next, and it is never tested. Mitigate is a verb, so it can’t describe disaster, and the article an signals a word that starts with a vowel sound.
Meets the StandardThe treaty did little to mitigate tensions, and within a year both sides had more troops, so tensions stayed high. Mitigate must mean to ease or lessen. The family fits: mitigation is the noun, and unmitigated, the adjective with un-, means not eased at all. The dictionary confirms “to make less severe,” traces it to Latin mitis, mild, and gives the pronunciation MIT-uh-gayt. Read back in, the treaty did little to ease tensions. The blank is unmitigated: nothing softened that disaster.It reads the sentence’s logic (little done, troops doubled), uses the word family to pick the right part of speech, checks the dictionary for meaning, origin and pronunciation, and tests the meaning back in the sentence.
Moves to Use
Follow the sentence’s logic: what happened before and after the word?Use the word’s position for its part of speech: after to, it is a verb.Line up the word family: mitigate, mitigation, unmitigated.Check a dictionary for the meaning, pronunciation and origin.Put the meaning back in the sentence and read it through.
Common Mistakes with L.9-10.4
Guessing from the sound of a word
“Mitigate sounds like militant, so it must mean to fight.”
Try this: Require one clue from the sentence itself before any guess, written beside the word with an arrow to the clue.
The right word in the wrong form
“Her analyze of the poem was strong,” with the verb where the noun belongs
Try this: Have students chart each new word’s family by part of speech, then choose the form a blank needs from its position.
Etymology as trivia
Students copy “from Latin” out of the dictionary entry and stop there
Try this: Ask what the origin explains: mitis means mild, so mitigate means make milder, and unmitigated means never made milder.
Vocabulary Worksheet GeneratorFree ToolTurn word families like analyze, analysis and analytical into practice where students choose the form each sentence needs.Word familiesParts of speechHigh school
Which clues in the sentence show what mitigate means?
The treaty did little to mitigate tensions, and within a year both sides had doubled their garrisons. Tensions stayed high, so mitigate must mean ease or lessen.
Why is unmitigated the right word for the blank?
The blank needs an adjective before disaster, and the article an calls for a vowel sound. Unmitigated, meaning not eased at all, fits both.
What does the Latin origin of mitigate add to its meaning?
It comes from mitis, mild, so to mitigate is to make something milder, which explains why unmitigated means not softened at all.