Type 4: General Sense
Many times, you have to understand what the situation of the sentence or passage is in order to define an unknown word. This is when you are using general sense as a context clue.
Example: During those first bewildering weeks, the thoughts of a college freshman drift back to high school where he was “in,” knew everyone, and felt at home. A feeling of nostalgia sweeps over him.
In order to determine the meaning of the word nostalgia , you need to understand the situation of the person in the sentence. He is thinking about high school when he was popluar and knew everyone. The idea of reflecting on that time in his life leads to the idea of nostalgia being a time where people reminisce or think back on a particular situation.
Often, general sense context clues are most difficult. You truly have to piece together information based on what you are told to determine the meaning of the unknown word.