Question

Suppose you encounter an unfamiliar word as you're reading. One way to figure out the meaning of this word is to?

Answer 1

One way to figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word is to know how it is used in the sentence it is part of. If you understand the context of the sentence then its meaning can be inferred from the sentence usage.

It is also better to look it up in the dictionary to further know the meaning of the word, its etymology, and usage. This is to support your initial understanding of the unfamiliar word as part of the sentence you have read. 

Answer 2

If you encounter an unfamiliar word while reading, you can find the meaning of this word by looking for context clues. Look around the word to find words that may be related to that word. 

Example:-   I do not know what Mortified means. 

Mary was mortified because she did not do her homework, and everyone else did.

It seems that mortified means 'embarrassed' or 'shameful' because that is how I would of felt if I was the only person who never did not hw.