There are many questions about how EFL learners infer word meanings from context and what distinguishes successful from less successful inferencers. This study explored the lexical inferencing strategies used by EFL learners and the characteristics which distinguish successful from less successful inferencers. To this end, 15 EFL students in an intact class were selected. The participants were supposed to think aloud while they were reading the passages and trying to infer the meanings of unknown words. Two passages were given to them and 20 words were highlighted as the target words. Afterwards, the number of used strategies and percentage of the participants' correct inferencing were identified. Then, the participants were divided into two groups of successful and less successful inferencers. Mann-Whitney U tests were conducted to examine the two groups in terms of the strategies used by the participants. The results revealed no significant differences between the successful and less successful inferencers in terms of the number of strategies. However, they differed concerning the quality of each strategy type (i.e., the way they made use of lexical inferencing strategies). The results can be of significance for teachers and learners of English to consider the quality of inferential strategies more than the quantity.