Question Excerpt From Root Words

1. Two words that have the same meaning are called __________ .
2. Scientists use ___________ to see stars that are millions of miles away.
3. The firefighters needed to use the ____ant to put out the fire.
4. I needed a THERMAL blanket when it got cold outside. What do you think THERMAL means?
5. The BESPECTACLED man peered at us from behind the thick lenses. What do you think
BESPECTACLED means?
6. My mom always keeps an eye on her ____________ in her car to make sure the car doesn't
overheat.
7. How do the SYNCHRONIZED swimmers learn to do everything at the exact same time? What do
you think the word SYNCHRONIZED means?

What are root words?

A root word is a word that has nothing added at the beginning or the end. It stands on
its own as a word, it has a meaning. New words can be made from root words by
adding beginnings (prefixes) and endings (suffixes).

A root word is a real word and you make new words from it by adding prefixes
and suffixes.

For example, clear is a root word. By adding prefixes and suffixes you can make these
new words:

unclear, clearly, cleared.

All of these words have grown from their root word. They share parts of the same
spelling and they are linked in terms of meaning. They are known as a word family.

In a word family all the words share parts of the same spelling and have linked
meaning.

Root words are helpful because:

 You can use a root word to help you with other spellings.
 If you recognise the root of a word when you are reading it can help you to work
out what the word is and what it means.

There are spelling rules for adding suffixes and prefixes to root words. To find out more
visit the Skillswise Suffixes and Prefixes modules.
Here are some more examples of root words and the word families that grow from them:

      use: useless, usable, used, using, user, misuse

      employ: employment, unemployment, employer, employee, employing

      manage: manager, managing, manages, manageable, unmanageable

      beauty: beautiful, beautifully, beautician

      faith: faithful, faithfully, unfaithful, unfaithfully

More root words

Here are some more root words and their word families:

Root word With prefixes/suffixes

act action, acting, acted, inaction
add addition, additional
apply application, applicant
beauty beautiful, beautician, beautifully
care careful, careless, caring, cared, cares, carefully
complete completely, completed, completing, completion, incompletely
confuse confusing, confused
cook cooker, cooking, cooked, cooks
correct correctly, incorrect, incorrectly, corrected
dark darker, darkest
decide decided, deciding, decisive, indecisive, decision, indecision
diet dieter, dieting, dietician
electric electricity, electrician
employ employment, unemployment, employer, employee, employing
engine engineer, engineering, engineered
enjoy enjoyment, enjoyable, enjoyed
excite excitement, excitable, excited, exciting, unexciting
faith faithful, faithfully, unfaithful, unfaithfully
freeze freezer, freezing
friend friendly, friendship, unfriendly, friendless
 Root word With prefixes/suffixes
happy happiness, unhappy, unhappiest, unhappiness, happier, unhappier
hope hopeful, hopeless
love lover, loving, loveable, loved, unloved, lovely, lovelier, loveliest
produce producer, produced, production
sad sadness, saddest, sadder,
suit suitable, unsuitable, suited, unsuited
use usable, useless, used, using, user, misuse

Confusing Pairs of English Words

Confusing Word Pairs
Many of us either have words that we confuse or get annoyed when someone else confuses a pair of
words. Sometimes the words are very closely related. That we spell them slightly differently has little
to do with their root meaning. Here are some of the word pairs that confuse or bother readers.

1. Loath and Loathe

I always feel annoyed when I read a new book and the editor(s) obviously couldn't tell the difference between "loath" and
"loathe" - one means "reluctant", while the other implies complete disgust.

Loathe 'detest' and loath (loth) 'reluctant', come from the same Old English root word, lað
'hostile'. Etymology Online says the weakened use of loath (no-e) meaning 'averse' or
'disinclined' is first attested in 1374; however, loathsome (again, no e) means detestable. In
meaning, loathsome is more like the verb loathe (with an e) than loath (no-e). To me, this
confusion seems easy to make and hard to break, but then there is not a Latin or Greek root here
for me to grab mental hold of.

2. Capital or Capitol

I always thought I had them straight, but "Capitol" as a noun refers to the building housing a government's business
affairs, while "Capital" as a noun, can be the city which houses the Capital (among other definitions); this according to
Dictionary.com. I'd call this "capital confusion."

Capitol (the building) comes from the Roman temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on the
Capitoline Hill. Capital comes from a Latin adjective (capitalis) based on the Latin noun for head
(caput). This capital (with an a) is used before 'letter' and describes the main city in a
country/state.
 The name of the Roman Hill, Capitoline, may be connected etymologically with caput.

Something related that confuses me is the capital used in describing a column. Columns were a
major part of the ancient temples, so the Capitoline temple had columns and these columns had
capitals. I need to remember that the capital refers just to the top (or head) of the capital.

3. Who's my Pal?

For some reason, I can never remember if it's principle or principal. This got even more embarrassing when I married the
son of a principal (or is that principle? **grin**). I think it was because when I was in school, the principal was never my
"pal" so that mnemonic never really worked for me.

Principal (your so-called pal in the school sysytem) comes from the Latin principalis 'first in
importance', from princeps 'chief, prince'. Principally 'in the first place' comes from the same
word. Principle (as in those things one always wishes politicians had) also comes from princeps
'chief, prince', but through the intermediary Latin form of principium 'beginning, first part'. So
one's pal, the person, comes from the adjectival form, while the abstract comes from the nominal
form.

4. Paper or Fixed?

I always have trouble with stationary and stationery. I know one means writing paper and the other means fixed in place,
but I have to think to figure out which one is which!

Stationary and stationery are both derived from the Latin word statio 'standing, position, job'.
Stationary comes more directly from the Latin adjective stationarius 'of a military station'.
Stationary is like a soldier standing (stationary) and saluting. Stationery -- the writing paper --
comes from stationarius 'stationary seller', which doesn't help with the English spelling issue. As
distinguished from a traveling peddler, the stationary seller worked in a fixed location. Since he
worked at a station, he was a station-er (an agent ending).