Morphology & Roots

Here's a bright idea: learn these words that contain the roots lum and luc, which come from the Latin word lux and lumen, meaning "light."

Learn these words derived from the Latin roots duc and duct, meaning "to lead" or "to guide."

Practice these words that derive from the Latin root fac, meaning "make" or "do." This list is sure to make your day!

Practice these words that contain the Latin roots jud, jur, and jus, meaning "law" or "justice."

If you're spoiling for a fight, learn these words from the Latin roots belli ("war") and milit ("soldier").

Test your strength against this list of vocabulary words that use the Latin roots forc and fort, meaning "strong."

Practice this list of English words derived from the Latin roots dic and dict, which mean "say" or "declare."

Break new ground with this list of words derived from the Latin verb frangere, "to break, shatter, or fracture."

Learn these words that contain the roots contra or counter, meaning "against" or "opposite."

Take the time to learn these words that contain either the Latin root temp or the Greek root chron, both of which mean "time."

Learn these list of words that contain the Greek root auto, meaning "self."

Practice this vocabulary list and explore words that contain the Greek roots graph ("write/writing") and gram ("written thing").

Learn this list of words containing the common word roots bene ("good") and mal ("bad").

Do you want to know what love is? Cozy up to these 14 words derived from the Latin root amor and Greek root phil.

Here we present 15 words that passed through Gaelic on their way to English. Some are stereotypically Gaelic, like bog and clan, but others may be a surprise, like words as common as loop or as colorful as curmudgeon. For more words from the Emerald Isle, read the article: Beyond Shamrocks and Leprechauns

When something is named after a person or a place or a company, we call that name an eponym. If you know anyone who says "Get me a Kleenex" instead of "Get me a tissue," they are using an eponym every time they have to sneeze. Eponyms are everywhere- in science, medicine, the arts. This list focuses on words that are historically eponyms but are so common that their history of deriving from names has been obscured. In this list, the history of eponyms you didn't realize were eponyms is revealed.

Learn these words beginning with the power prefix "anti" (meaning "against," "in opposition to," or "opposite of"). More Power Prefix lists: con-, fore-, inter-, mis-, pre-, sub-, super-, trans-, and uni-! ELA Common Core State Standard: "Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word."

The root of this "knowledge" word tree usually appears as "sci." Its most famous branch is the word "science." More Latin Love, Volume I lists: vocare, portare, struere, and via! ELA Common Core State Standard: "Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word."

Know your body through this list. For more dissections of words with Latin and Greek anatomy, check out these lists: corpus, caput, ora, os, dens, gaster, neuron, manus, ped, podos, derma, carnem, os, cor, kardia, psyche

Work your way through these lists focused on Greek and Latin roots representing people and the social units they form: genus, ethnos, demos, populus, socius, civis, anthropos

Learn these words beginning with the power prefix "sub-" (meaning "below" or "under"). More Power Prefix lists: anti-, con-, fore-, inter-, mis-, pre-, super-, trans-, and uni-! ELA Common Core State Standard: "Use common, grade-appropriate Greek or Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word."

Make the rounds with these lists of prefixes that all have to do with things that go around: circum, ambi, peri

Learn these prefixes that can make you think twice about the words they form: bi, di, diplo

Work your way through these lists focused on Greek and Latin roots representing people and the social units they form: genus, ethnos, demos, populus, socius, civis, anthropos

The ancients believed that the universe, or the cosmos, was composed of five basic elements: earth, air, fire, water, and sky. (When advances in technology revealed more elements that were much smaller, these classical five were reclassified as states of matter--solid, liquid, gas, and plasma.) The ancient words for these elements show up in our language today, through Greek and Latin roots for earth (terra, geo), water (hydor, aqua), fire (ignis, pyr), and words from the sky including air (aer, ventus, aither), star (astron), and sun (sol). Find words from cosmos here, then check out lists from other Greek and Latin word-forming elements: cosmos, terra, geo, hydor, aqua, ignis, pyr, aer, ventus, aither, astron, sol