out of context
65
4.1
- idiom
:
fuera de contexto
- Listen, buddy, it's easy to misunderstand something when you hear it out of context.
- taken out of context
- quoted out of context
- words out of context
I mean, they, they took snippets of wiretaps out of context and misled the judge.
- I mean, they, they took snippets of wiretaps out of context and misled the judge.
- And I think, but out of context, I think they can be dangerous to some people.
- You know what's I think social media pulls everything out of context.
- And it's every single line you could take out of context and know exactly what he's saying.
- I think things can get taken out of context.
- No, they, they're unfairly take stuff out of context.
- I think two or three a lot of things you say also get taken out of context.
- It's just a lot of it just felt like a PowerPoint that was taken out of context.
Examples
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There were many, many reports of being misquoted or taken out of context.
Academic text (2005) -
But taken out of context, it could mean anything.
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That is totally taken out of context.
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What he said was taken out of context from a question asked by a student.
Blog text (3) -
I'm sure that statement by the former governor was taken out of context.
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Otherwise, the information provided will be taken out of context and likely misinterpreted.
Academic text (2006) -
However, many stories ignore important facts and take legislators' actions out of context.
Academic text (2000) -
Wally Pfister's words were taken out of context in this quote because I was there.
Blog text (3) -
One cannot just address Chinese immigration issues out of context, assuming their centrality.
Academic text (2003) -
It's easy to misinterpret his comment when you hear it out of context.
Synonyms
2
5.3
In a way that gives someone the wrong idea
Antonyms
How Misleading
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'out' (outside/excluded) + 'of' + 'context' (surrounding circumstances) yields 'outside the surrounding circumstances' or 'without considering the full situation'. This spatial/exclusional logic is common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words can readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Out of context creates a clear picture: imagine cutting a sentence out of the rest of the text and removing it from its surrounding context, like pulling one photo out of an album. That's why out of context means 'without the full information' and can make words seem to 'change meaning' or say something they did not mean.