Root Words, Prefixes and Suffixes

Here are some common root words in the English language:

Root Word	Meaning	Example
ami, amic	love	amicable
anni	year	anniversary
aud	to hear	auditory
bene	good	beneficiary
biblio	book	bibliography
cap	take, seize	capture
cent	one hundred	century
chrom	color	chromatic
chron	time	chronological
circum	around	circumvent
cred	believe	credible
corp	body	corpse
dict	to say	dictate
equi	equal	equality
fract; rupt	to break	fracture
ject	throw	eject
mal	bad	malignant
min	small	miniature
mort	death	mortal
multi	many	multiply
ped	foot	pedestrian
rupt	break	rupture
sect	cut	dissect
script	write	manuscript
sol	sun	solar
struct	build	construct
terr	earth	terrain
therm	heat	thermometer
vid, vis	to see	visual
voc	voice; to call	vocal

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Prefixes

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Prefixes are the letters added to the beginning of a root word to make a new word with a different meaning.

Prefixes on their own have meanings, too. If you add a prefix to a root word, it can change its meaning entirely.

Here are some of the most common prefixes, their meanings, and some examples:

Prefix	Meaning	Example
auto	self	autography
con	with	conclude
hydro	water	hydrate
im, in, non, un	not	unimportant
inter	between	international
mis	incorrect, badly	mislead
over	too much	over-stimulate
post	after	postpone
pre	before	preview
re	again	rewrite
sub	under, below	submarine
trans	across	transcribe

Let’s look back at some of the root words from Section 1. By adding prefixes to these root words, you can create a completely new word with a new meaning:

Root Word	Prefix	New Word	Meaning
dress (clothing)	un (remove)	undress	remove clothing
sect (cut)	inter (between)	intersect	cut across or through
phobia (fear)	hydro (water)	hydrophobia	fear of water
script (write)	post (after)	postscript	additional remark at the end of a letter

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Suffixes

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Suffixes are the letters added to the end of a root word to make a new word with a different meaning.

Suffixes on their own have meanings, too. If you add a suffix to a root word, it can change its meaning entirely.

Here are some of the most common suffixes, their meanings, and some examples:

Suffix	Meaning	Example
able, ible	can be done	agreeable
an, ean, ian	belonging or relating to	European
ed	happened in the past	jogged
en	made of	wooden
er	comparative (more than)	stricter
est	comparative (most)	largest
ful	full of meaningful	meaningful
ic	having characteristics of	psychotic
ion, tion, ation, ition	act, process	hospitalization
ist	person who practices	linguist
less	without	artless
logy	study of	biology

Let’s look back at some of the root words from Section 1. By adding suffixes to these root words, you can create a completely new word with a new meaning:

Root Word	Suffix	New Word	Meaning
aud (to hear)	logy (study of)	audiology	the study of hearing
form (shape)	less (without)	formless	without a clear shape
port (carry)	able (can be done)	portable	able to be carried
normal (typical)	ity (state of)	normality	condition of being normal

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Determining Meaning

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Knowing the meanings of common root words, prefixes, and suffixes can help you determine the meaning of unknown words. By looking at a word’s individual parts, you can get a good sense of its definition.

If you look at the word transportation, you can study the different parts of the word to figure out what it means.

If you were to break up the word you would see the following:

PREFIX: trans = across

ROOT: port = carry

SUFFIX: tion = act or process

If you put all these word parts together, you can define transportation as: the act or process of carrying something across.

Let’s define some other words by looking at their roots, prefixes and suffixes:

Word	Prefix	Root	Suffix	Working Definition
indestructible	in (not)	struct (build)	able (can be done)	Not able to be “un” built (torn down)
nonconformist	non (not) con (with)	form (shape)	ist (person who practices)	A person who can not be shaped (someone who doesn’t go along with the norm)
subterranean	sub (under, below)	terr (earth)	ean (belonging or relating to)	Relating or belonging to something under the earth

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Let’s Review!

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• A root word is the most basic part of a word.
• A prefix is the letters added to beginning of a root word to change the word and its meaning.
• A suffix is the letters added to the end of a root word to change the word and its meaning.
• You can figure out a word’s meaning by looking closely at its different word parts (root, prefixes, and suffixes).