Question

Read the following sentence.

Answer 1

The accurate answer is: Look up the word on an online dictionary.

Looking up for a word on an online and reliable dictionary is the most effective way to find out the different meanings a word can have according to the context in which it is used. The dictionary also provides the many fixed expressions using that word. For example, it is commonly known that the word fancy means "something elaborate in decoration or structure"  but when used in "she took a fancy to the beautiful diamond bracelet in the department-store window" the meaning gets a little confusing. Therefore, if you look it up in an online dictionary you find out that there's a fixed expression "to take a fancy on something/someone", meaning "to start liking something or someone very much". Finally, we can be sure of the actual meaning of the sentence.

Regarding the rest of the options:

• Use context to guess what a girl would think about a diamond bracelet for sale in a department window.

While this option could help you in identifying the meaning of the word since context is always a key factor, a simple guessing won't verify the actual meaning of the word.

• Conduct a search on an online video sharing website.

This could help you but, once again, you need a dictionary to verify whether what is posted on the online video sharing website is reliable.

• Look up the word on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is not a 100% reliable source since everyone can provide and edit information on this website.

• Try to think of other words that sound like “fancy.”

The sound of the word "fancy" won't provide you its meaning, so it would be helpless to think of other words with a similar sound.