Question

As you continue to read the next part of The Gettysburg Address, you come across a word that you’re unfamiliar with.

Read the excerpt to use context clues to find the meaning of detract.

“The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.”

What's the meaning of the word detract as it’s used in the sentence?
Question 6 options:

To fix conclusively


To allow something to continue


To set a limit to


To diminish the importance of something

Answer 1

To diminish the importance of something.

In context, Lincoln means the soldiers have made the ground sacred in a way that it's beyond the living's power to add to or take away from—that is, to lessen its importance or value.