To remove something from the surrounding circumstances or material that help give it meaning.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- decontextualize a quotation
- decontextualize a finding
On the page
The summary decontextualized the quotation by omitting the qualification immediately before it.
The analysis warned against decontextualizing a finding whose meaning depended on the experimental conditions.
Nearby words
Opposite meanings
Related words
Word forms
- Base
- decontextualize
- Past tense
- decontextualized
- Past participle
- decontextualized
- Present participle
- decontextualizing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- decontextualize
- Present continuous
- am/is/are decontextualizing
- Present perfect
- have/has decontextualized
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been decontextualizing
- Past
- decontextualized
- Past continuous
- was/were decontextualizing
- Past perfect
- had decontextualized
- Past perfect continuous
- had been decontextualizing
- Future
- will decontextualize
- Future continuous
- will be decontextualizing
- Future perfect
- will have decontextualized
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been decontextualizing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: decontextualize; decontextualizes; decontextualized; decontextualized; decontextualizing Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: definition, institutional analysis, scope assessment, comparison. Disciplines: academic writing, institutional analysis, conceptual explanation. Commonness: uncommon. Third-person singular: decontextualizes.
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