by Mr. Ezekiel D. Rodriguez

Parts of aWord

WHAT IS A ROOT?

A root, as its name suggests, is a word or word part from which other words grow, usually through the addition of prefixes and suffixes.

The root of the word vocabulary, for example, is voc, a Latin root meaning "word" or "name." This root also appears in the words advocacy, convocation, evocative, vocal, and vociferous.

EXAMPLES:

ROOT MEANING EXAMPLES

-ast(er)-(G) star asteroid, astronomy

-audi- (L) hear audible, audience

-auto- (G) self automatic, autopsy

-bene- (L) good benefit, benign

-bio- (G) life biography, biology

-chrono- (G) time chronic, synchronize

-dict- (L) say dictate, diction

-duc- (L) lead, make deduce, produce

-gen- (L) give birth gene, generate

MAIN TYPES OF

PrefixSuffix

WHAT ARE ?

A word element – usually a prefix or suffix--that can be attached to a base, stem, or root to form a new word.

WHAT ARE ?

Etymology:

From the Latin Figere, "fasten"

PREFIX

A letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of a word that partly indicates its meaning.

Common prefixes include anti- (against), co- (with), mis- (wrong, bad), and trans-(across).

TYPES OF

Derivational prefixes do not normally alter the word class of the base word; that is, a prefix is added to a noun to form a new noun with a different meaning.

PREFIX

Etymology: From the Latin Praefixum, "to

fasten in front"

PREFIX

During the 1980s, 'mini-' gave way to 'micro-,' which has yielded to 'nano-.' In the new millennium, companies such as Nanometrics, Nanogen and NanoPierce Technologies have all embraced the prefix, despite complaints their products were hardly nano-scale (a billionth of a meter or smaller).

(Alex Boese, "Electrocybertronics," Smithsonian, March 2008)

COMMON PREFIXES

Prefix Meaning Examplea-, an- without amoralante- before antecedentanti- against anticlimaxauto- self autopilot

circum- around circumventco- with copilot

com-, con- with companion, contact

COMMON PREFIXES

contra- against contradict

de- off, away from devalue

dis- not disappearen- put into enclose

ex- out of, former extract, ex-president

extra- beyond, more than extracurricular

hetero- different heterosexualhomo- same homonym

COMMON PREFIXES

intra- between intravenous

macro- large macroeconomics

micro- small microscopemono- one monoclenon- not, without nonentity

omni- all, every omniscientpost- after postmortem

pre-, pro- before, forward

precede, project

COMMON PREFIXES

sub- under submarine

syn- same time synchronize

trans- across transmit

tri- three tricycle

un- not unfinished

uni- one unicorn

SUFFIX

"Gazebo: The name is an 18th-century joke word combining 'gaze' with the Latin suffix 'ebo,' meaning 'I shall.‘”

(Encyclopedia Britannica Online)

TYPES OF

Derivational suffixes, on the other hand, usually change both the meaning and the word class; that is, a suffix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a different meaning.

EXAMPLE:

adjective: dark / suffixed noun: darkness

verb: agree / suffixed noun: agreement

noun: friend / suffixed noun: friendship

(Douglas Biber, Susan Conrad, and Geoffrey Leech, Longman Student Grammar of Spoken English, Longman, 2002)

SUFFIX

A letter or group of letters added to the end of a word or stem (i.e., a base form), serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending.

SUFFIX

Etymology: From the Latin Suffixum, “to

fasten underneath”

COMMON NOUN SUFFIXES

Suffix Meaning Example

-acy state or quality privacy

-al act or process of refusal

-ance, -ence state or quality of

maintenance, eminence

-dom place or state of being

freedom, kingdom

-er, -or one who trainer, protector

-ism doctrine, belief communism

COMMON NOUN SUFFIXES

-ist one who chemist

-ity, -ty quality of veracity

-ment condition of argument

-ness state of being heaviness

-ship position held fellowship

-sion, -tion state of being concession, transition

COMMON VERB SUFFIXES

-ate become eradicate

-en become enlighten

-ify, -fy make or become terrify

-ize, -ise become civilize

COMMON ADJECTIVE SUFFIXES

-able, -ible capable of being edible, presentable

-al pertaining to regional

-esque reminiscent of picturesque

-ful notable for fanciful

-ic, -ical pertaining to musical, mythic

-ious, -ous characterized by nutritious, portentous

-ish having the quality of fiendish

-ive having the nature of creative

-less without endless

-y characterized by sleazy