Building Blocks of vocabulary

Word Roots: The Building Blocks of Words

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 wordvocabulary

Lots of test-prep companies advise students to study Greek and Latin roots of English words to help figure out the meaning of an SAT vocabulary word. Some students even take Latin in high school with the sole aim of using it to learn vocabulary roots for the SAT. English words are often made up of bits and pieces derived from Latin or Greek, which we call word roots. For example, let’s say you come across the wordantebellum on the SAT and don’t know what it means. The word root ante means “before,” and bellum means “war,” so you might think that antebellum means “before the war.” You’re correct! Here’s a list of the 28 most common word roots that’ll help you puzzle out the meanings of unfamiliar SAT words.

Word Root	What It Means	SAT Vocab Words
1) ante	before	antebellum, antediluvian
2) anti	against	antithesis, antipathy, antiseptic
3) auto	self	autocratic
4) bene	good, well	benefactor, benevolent, benediction
5) chron	time	anachronism, asynchronous
6) circum	around	circumnavigate, circumference, circumlocution, circumvent, circumscribe
7) con, com	with, together	convene, concatenate, conjoin, companionable
8) contra, counter	against	contradict, counteract, contravene
9) cred	to believe	credo, credible, credence, credulity, incredulous
10) dict	to speak	verdict, malediction, dictate, dictum, indict
11) dis	not	disperse, dissuade, distemper, disarray, disjointed
12) equi	equal	equidistant, equilateral, equilibrium, equinox, equitable, equanimity
13) ex, e	out, away	emit, enervate, excise, extirpate, expunge, exonerate, exacerbate
14) flu, flux	flow	effluence, effluvium, fluctuate, confluence
15) hyper	above, over	hyperbolic
16) in, im	not	inviolate, innocuous, intractable, impregnable, impermeable, impervious
17) inter	between	intermittent, introvert, interdict, interrogate
18) mal	bad	malformation, maladjusted, dismal, malady, malcontent, malfeasance
19) multi	many	multitude, multivalent
20) neo	new	neologism, neophyte
21) omni	all	omnipotent, omnivorous, omniscient
22) per	through	persuade, impervious, persistent, persecute
23) sanct	holy	sanctify, sanctuary, sanction, sanctimonious, sacrosanct
24) scrib, script	to write	inscription, prescribe, proscribe, ascribe, conscript, scribble, scribe
25) spect	to look	circumspect, retrospect, prospect, spectacle, aspect
26) tract	to drag, to draw	protract, detract, intractable
27) trans	across	transduce, intransigent
28) vert	to turn	extrovert, introvert