Thousands of English words are built from a small set of Greek and Latin roots. Learn that “tele” means far and “scope” means look, and telescope explains itself — as do telephone, television and microscope.
What your child will learn
- Know the meaning of common roots such as tele, micro, aqua, bio, graph, port and geo
- Find the root inside a longer word
- Use roots to work out the meaning of an unfamiliar word
- Group words that share a root
Words are built from parts
Biology is bio (life) plus logy (study): the study of life. Geography is geo (earth) plus graph (write): writing about the earth. Once you know the parts, a long word stops being a mystery.
A tool for every subject
Roots turn up everywhere — thermometer in science, century in history, triangle in maths. Because many languages borrowed the same roots, they often help with words in other languages too.
Example questions
Here are a few questions like the ones in the first quest. Can you solve them?
1. What does the root “graph” mean, as in “autograph”?
- see
- write
- walk
- hear
Show answer
Answer: write. An autograph is a signature you write yourself.
2. What does the root “geo” mean, as in “geography”?
- sky
- sea
- star
- earth
Show answer
Answer: earth. Geography is the study of the Earth.
3. What does the root “bio” mean, as in “biology”?
- earth
- two
- book
- life
Show answer
Answer: life. Biology is the study of living things.
Tips for grown-ups
- Pick a root of the week and collect every word you find with it.
- Invent a new word from two roots and ask someone to guess its meaning.
- When you meet a long word, cover the ends and look for a part you know.