Vocabulary is a toolkit necessary for reading comprehension and verbal reasoning and it is therefore often tested explicitly and implicitly. For this reason, knowing how to decode the meaning of words based on context clues helps students achieve higher scores. One strategy to get good at this involves learning root words.
What’s that? Well, in linguistics, a root is the primary lexical unit of a word. Put differently, it’s what gives a word most of its meaning. Therefore, developing a grasp of root words can be a way for you to learn what words mean faster than learning definitions word by word.
In this blog post, we will offer some examples of common word roots. As a strategy, learning roots is a fool-proof way to improve your vocabulary and prepare you for effective inference skills to get questions right. Here they are:
- G: “grat” as in pleasing
Example words:
- gratifying – to give pleasure or satisfaction
- ingratiated – to gain favor or acceptance
- gratitude – thankfulness
- A: “ambi/amphi” as in both or on both sides
Example words:
- ambidextrous – ease with both left and right
- amphitheater – a large auditorium
- B: “brev/brid” as in short or small
Example words:
- abbreviation – the shortened form of a word or phrase
- abridged – a condensed text
- breviloquent – marked by brevity
- L: “loc/log/loqu” as in relating to words, thought and speech
Example words:
- elocution – public speaking
- loquacious – to talk excessively
- E: “epi” as in on, upon, or even over
Example words:
- epicenter – the core or focus
- episode – an event
- epitaph – inscription on a tomb
- S: “sacr/sanct” as in holy
Example words:
- sanctify – make holy
- sacrament – possessing sacred character
We hope to have made evident with these examples how word roots are helpful vocabulary categories. While none of the example words have exactly matching definitions, they are closely related, and studying them will allow you to learn a larger number of words in a short period of time. In sum, this is a useful strategy to study for standardized exams where you are asked to do exactly that: learn a lot quickly. Another skill you develop with this strategy is learning how to infer the meaning of words you have never seen nor read before. When you know word roots then you are prepared to identify them in a word and thus derive that word’s meaning in context. Again, this is extremely valuable for exams that test verbal skills. This list of examples is obviously not exhaustive, but we think it’s a good start for deep learning.
