Can’t recognise some words out of context

Hi
I’m able to recognise the meaning of a word within a sentence but less so when in isolation.
Do I know the word or am I just guessing due to context.

It’s most likely always gonna be due to context since that’s what we train ourselves to learn from

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This makes sense as I’m looking for patterns

You stand somewhere in the middle of truly learning a word. Let’s say you encounter an adjective. First, your brain determines whether it has a positive or negative connotation. Next, it categorizes it—for instance, as a personal trait. Then, you start understanding its more nuanced meaning, all within context. Over time, your brain recognizes the word in different contexts, but there’s still some uncertainty.

For me, I don’t move a word into the “learned” category until I’ve encountered it, say, 10 times in various contexts. Even then, I only consider it fully known when I feel confident in understanding and using it. At that point, it may still remain in my passive vocabulary.

So, rely on you feelings

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Thank you for some feedback
I’m now quite happy to move words back down a few steps if I forget it