Meaning & use
broad context
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Meaning
phrasecountable
The wider situation or set of conditions that helps explain why something happens or is important.
Grammar: Countable, so you can say 'a broad context' or 'the broad context'; it often follows 'in' or 'within'.
Patterns
- in the broad context of something
- consider the broad context
- understand something in its broad context
To judge the decision fairly, we need to look at the broad context of the time.
The report places the recent changes in a broad context of economic reform.
In the broad context of the course, this week's topic is just an introduction.
Word forms
| plural | broad contexts |
|---|
Common combinations
- in the broad context of
- In the broad context of climate policy, this agreement is only a first step.
- consider the broad context
- Before criticizing the author, consider the broad context in which she wrote.
- place something in a broad context
- The documentary places the war in a broad context of regional tension.
- the broad context of the debate
- His remarks make more sense in the broad context of the debate.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wider context
- Very similar, but 'wider' often contrasts with a narrow focus, while 'broad' stresses the full range of factors.
- big picture
- Informal; it means the whole situation rather than the details, and is more common in speech than in academic writing.
- background
- Background is the information you need before understanding something; 'broad context' includes the surrounding conditions and their connections.
Opposites
Word family
- context noun
- The situation or words around something that help you understand it.
- contextual adjective
- Relating to the situation in which something happens.
- contextualize verb
- To explain something by describing the situation around it.
Commonly confused: broad context or broad consensus?
broad context vs broad consensus
A broad consensus is general agreement among many people; a broad context is the wider situation. They sound similar but mean very different things.
Practice
Choose the best phrase: The historian argued that the treaty should be understood in the ______ of European politics.
Choose one answer.
'Broad context' fits because the sentence is about the wider situation of European politics. 'Broad consensus' means general agreement, which does not fit here, and 'narrow context' would suggest a limited view, which contradicts the historian's point.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “broad context”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.