All Word Roots

AB/ABS comes to us from Latin, and means “from,” “away,” or “off.” Abuse is the use of something in the wrong way. To abduct is to “lead away from” or kidnap. Aberrant behavior is behavior that “wanders away from” what is acceptable. But there are so many words that include these roots that it would be absurd to try to list them all here.

ACER/ACR comes from the Latin adjective acer, meaning “sharp” or “sour.”

AER/AERO comes from the Greek word for “air.”

AM comes from the Latin amare, “to love.” The Roman god of love was known by two different names, Cupid and Amor. Amiable means “friendly or good-natured,” and amigo is Spanish for “friend.”

AMBI means "on both sides" or "around"; ambi- comes from Latin. Most of us are either right-handed or left-handed, but ambidextrous people can use their right and left hand equally well.

ANIM comes from the Latin anima, meaning “breath” or “soul.” So, for example, an animal is a living, breathing thing—though human animals have often argued about whether other species actually have souls.

ANN/ENN comes from Latin annus, meaning “year.” An annual event occurs yearly. An anniversary is an example of an annual event, although the older you get the more frequent they seem to be.

ANT/ANTI is a Latin prefix meaning “against.” An anticlimax is the opposite of a climax. An antiseptic or antibiotic fights germs. An antacid attacks acid in the stomach. And an antidote works against the effects of a poison.

ANTE is Latin for “before” or “in front of.” Antediluvian, which describes something very old or outdated, literally means “before the flood”—that is, Noah's Flood. And antebellum literally means “before the war,” usually the American Civil War.

ANTHROP comes from the Greek word for “human being.” So an anthropomorphic god, such as Zeus or Athena, basically looks and acts like a human. And in Aesop's fables and many animated cartoons, animals are usually anthropomorphized and behave exactly like furry, four-legged human beings.

AQU comes from aqua, the Latin word for “water.”

ARM comes from the Latin arma, meaning “weapons, tools.”

ART comes from the Latin word for “skill.” This reminds us that, until a few centuries ago, almost no one made a strong distinction between skilled craftsmanship and what we would now call “art.” And the word art itself could also mean simply “cleverness.” The result is that this root appears in some words where we might not expect it.

AUD, from the Latin verb audire, is the root that has to do with hearing. What is audible can be heard. An audience is a group of listeners, sometimes seated in an auditorium. And audio today can mean almost anything that has to do with sound.

AUT/AUTO comes from the Greek word for “same” or “self.” Something automatic operates by itself, and an automobile moves by itself, without the help of a horse. An autograph is in the handwriting of the person him- or herself, and an autopsy is an inspection of a corpse by an examiner's own eyes.

BELL comes from the Latin word meaning “war.” Bellona was the little-known Roman goddess of war; her husband, Mars, was the god of war.

BENE is Latin for “well.” A benefit is a good result or effect. Something beneficial produces good results or effects. The Latin root can be heard in other languages as well: “Good!” or “Fine!” in Spanish is “Bueno!” ; in French, it's “Bon!” ; and in Italian, just say “Bene!”

BIO comes from the Greek word for “life,” and forms the base for many English words. Biology, for instance, is the study of living forms and life processes; the biosphere is the entire area of and above the earth where life can exist; and biotechnology is the use of living organisms to create useful products.

CAD comes from the Latin verb cadere, “to fall.”

CANT comes from the Latin verb cantare, meaning “sing.”

CAPIT comes from the Latin word for “head,” caput, turns up in some important places. The head of a ship is its captain, and the capital of a state or country is where the “head of state” works. A capital letter stands head and shoulders above a lowercase letter, as well as at the head (beginning) of a sentence.

CARN comes from a Latin word meaning “flesh” or “meat.” Carnation originally meant “the color of flesh,” which was once the only color of the flower we call the carnation. In Christian countries, Lent is the period when the faithful traditionally give up something they love, often meat. The days leading up to Lent are known as the carnival season, from the Italian carnelevare, later shortened to carnevale, which meant “removal of meat”— though during carnival, of course, people indulge in just about everything, and the removal of meat only comes later.

CATA comes from the Greek kata, one of whose meanings was “down.” A catalogue is a list of items put down on paper, and a catapult is a weapon for hurling missiles down on one's enemies.

CED comes from the Latin verb cedere, meaning “to proceed” or “to yield.” Proceed itself employs the root, as does recede, and their related nouns procession and recession employ another form of the Latin verb.

CENTR/CENTER comes from the Greek kentron and the Latin centrum, meaning “sharp point” or “center point of a circle.”

CEPT comes from the Latin verb meaning “take, seize.” Capture, which is what a captor has done to a captive, has the same meaning. Captivate once meant literally “capture,” but now means only to capture mentally through charm or appeal.

CHRON comes from the Greek word for “time.”

CIRCU/CIRCUM comes from the Latin circus, meaning “circle.”

CIS comes from the Latin verb meaning “to cut, cut down, or slay.” An incisor is one of the big front biting teeth; beavers and woodchucks have especially large ones. A decision “cuts off” previous discussion and uncertainty.

CLAM/CLAIM comes from the Latin verb clamare, meaning “to shout or cry out.” To claim often means “to call for.” And an exclamation is a cry of shock, joy, or surprise.

CLUS comes from the Latin claudere, “to close.”

CO is a Latin prefix that generally means “with, together”.

CODI/CODE comes from the Latin codex, meaning “trunk of a tree” or “document written on wooden tablets.” A code can be either a set of laws or a system of symbols used to write messages. To encode a message is to write it in code. A genetic code, transmitted by genes, is a set of instructions for everything from blood type to eye color.

CONTRA is the Latin equivalent of anti-, and it too means essentially “against” or “contrary to.” A contrast “stands against” something else that it's compared to. And contrapuntal music, as in the music of Bach, sets one melody against another played at the same time and produces harmony (which no one is opposed to).

CORD, from the Latin word for “heart,” turns up in several common English words. So does its Greek relative card-, which is familiar to us in words such as cardiac, “relating to the heart.”

CORP comes from corpus, the Latin word for “body.” A corpse is a dead body. A corporation is also a kind of body, since it may act almost like an individual. And a corps is a “body” of soldiers.

COSM comes from the Greek word for “order.” Since the Greeks believed the universe was an orderly place, words in this group usually relate to the universe. So cosmonaut was the word for a space traveler from the former Soviet Union. (The roots of our own word, astronaut, suggest “star traveler” instead.) Oddly enough, cosmetics comes from the same root, since putting things in order is similar to decorating something—such as your face.

CRAC/CRAT comes from the Greek word meaning “power.” Attached to another root, it indicates which group holds the power. With demos, the Greek word for “people,” it forms democracy, a form of government in which the people rule. A theocracy, from the Greek theos, “god,” is government based on divine guidance. In a meritocracy, people earn power by their own merit.

CRE/CRET comes from the Latin verb crescere, which means both “to come into being” and “to grow.”

CRED comes from credere, the Latin verb meaning “to believe” or “to entrust.” We have a good credit rating when institutions trust in our ability to repay a loan, and we carry credentials so that others will believe that we are who we say we are.

CRIM comes from the Latin words for “fault or crime” or “accusation.” It's obvious where the root shows up most commonly in English. A crime is an act forbidden by the government, which the government itself will punish you for, and for which you may be branded a criminal. A crime is usually more serious than a tort, a “civil wrong” for which the wronged person must himself sue if he wants to get repaid in some way.

CRIT comes from a Greek verb that means “to judge” or “to decide.” So a film critic judges a movie and tells us what's good or bad about it. Her critical opinion may convince us not to go, or we may overlook any negative criticism and see it anyway.

CRYPT comes from the Greek word for “hidden.” To encrypt a message is to encode it—that is, to hide its meaning in code language. When a scientific term begins with crypto-, it always means that there's something hidden about it .

CULP comes from the Latin word for “guilt.” Its best-known appearance in English is probably in culprit, meaning someone who is guilty of a crime.

CULT comes from the Latin cultus, meaning “care.”

CUR, from the Latin verb curare, means basically “care for.” Our verb cure comes from this root, as do manicure (“care of the hands”) and pedicure (“care of the feet”).

CURR/CURS comes from currere, the Latin verb meaning “to run.” Although words based on this root don't tend to suggest speed, the sense of movement remains. Current, for instance, refers to running water in a stream or river, or electrons running through a wire, and an excursion is a trip from one place to another.

DE in Latin means “down, away.”

DEM/DEMO comes from the Greek word meaning “people.”

DICT comes from dicere, the Latin word meaning “to speak.” So a dictionary is a treasury of words for speaking. And a contradiction (with its prefix contra-, “against”) speaks against or denies something.

DIS comes from Latin, where it means “apart.” In English, its meanings have increased to include “opposite” or “not” (as in distaste, disagreeable), “deprive of” (disinfect), or “exclude or expel from” (disbar). The original meaning can still be seen in a word like dissipate, which means “to break up and scatter.”

DOC/DOCT comes from the Latin docere, which means “to teach.” So, for instance, a doctor was originally a highly educated person capable of instructing others in a field—which usually wasn't medicine.

DOM comes from the Latin domus, “house,” and dominus, “master.”

DUC/DUCT, from the Latin verb ducere, “to lead,” shows up regularly in English. Duke means basically “leader.” The Italian dictator Mussolini was known simply as Il Duce, “the leader.” But such words as produce and reduce also contain the root, even though their meanings show it less clearly.

DYNAM comes from the Greek dynamis, meaning “power.” A dyne is a unit used in measuring force; an instrument that measures force is called a dynamometer. And when Alfred Nobel invented a powerful explosive in 1867, he named it dynamite.

DYS comes from Greek, where it means “bad” or “difficult.” So dysphagia is difficult swallowing, and dyspnea is difficult or labored breathing. Dysphasia is an inability to use and understand language because of injury to or disease of the brain. Dys- is sometimes close in meaning to dis- (see DIS), but try not to confuse the two.

EPI is a Greek prefix that may mean various things, but usually "on, over" or "attached to." So an earthquake's epicenter is the ground right over the center of the quake. And your epidermis is the outer layer of your skin, on top of the inner dermis.

EQU comes from the Latin word aequus, meaning “equal.” To equalize means to make things equal. Things that are equivalent have the same value, use, or meaning. All three sides of an equilateral triangle are of the same length. And an equation (for instance, 21 + 47 = 68) is a statement that two mathematical expressions are equal.

ERR, from the Latin verb errare, means “to wander” or “to stray.” The root is seen in the word error, meaning a wandering or straying from what is correct or true. Erratum (plural, errata) is Latin for “mistake” ; so an errata page is a book page that lists mistakes found too late to correct before the book's publication.

EU comes from the Greek word for “well”; in English words it can also mean “good” or “true.” A veterinarian who performs euthanasia is providing a very sick or hopelessly injured animal a “good” or easy death.

EV comes from the Latin aevum, “age” or “lifetime.” Though the root occurs in only a few English words, it's related to the Greek aion, “age,” from which we get the word eon, meaning “a very long period of time.”

EXTRA is Latin for “outside” or “beyond.” So anything extraterrestrial or extragalactic takes place beyond the earth or the galaxy. Something extravagant, such as an extravaganza, goes way beyond the normal. And extra is naturally a word itself, a shortening of extraordinary, “beyond the ordinary.”

FAC comes from the Latin verb facere, meaning “to make or do.”

FALL comes from the Latin verb fallere, “to deceive.”

FID comes from fides, the Latin word for “faith” or “trust.” Fidelity is another word for “faithfulness.” Confidence is having faith in someone or something. An infidel is someone who lacks a particular kind of religious faith. And the once-popular dog's name Fido is Latin for “I trust.”

FIG comes from a Latin verb meaning “to shape or mold” and a noun meaning “a form or shape.” So a figure is usually a shape. A transfiguration transforms the shape or appearance of something. And a disfiguring injury changes the appearance of part of the body for the worse.

FIN comes from the Latin word for “end” or “boundary.” Final describes last things, and a finale or a finish is an ending.

FLECT comes from flectere, the Latin verb meaning “to bend.” The root sometimes takes the form flex-. Things that are flexible can be bent, and when you flex a muscle, you're usually bending a limb—which, as a trainer at the gym will tell you, requires the use of flexor muscles.

FLU comes from the Latin verb fluere, “to flow.” So a flume is a narrow gorge with a stream flowing through it. A fluent speaker is one from whom words flow easily. Influence originally referred to an invisible fluid that was believed to flow from the stars and to affect the actions of humans. A mysterious outbreak of disease in 15th-century Italy led Italians to blame it on the stars' influenza—and the name stuck.

FORM is the Latin root meaning “shape” or “form.” When you march in formation, you're moving in ordered patterns. And a formula is a standard form for expressing information, such as a rule written in mathematical symbols, or the “ Sincerely yours” that often ends a letter.

FORT comes from fortis, Latin for “strong.” The familiar noun fort, meaning a building strengthened against possible attacks, comes directly from it. And our verb comfort actually means “to give strength and hope to.”

FRACT comes from the Latin verb frangere, “to break or shatter.” A fraction is one of the pieces into which a whole can be broken, and a fracture is a breakin a wall, a rock, or a bone.

FUG comes from the Latin verb fugere, meaning “to flee or escape.” Thus, a refugee flees from some threat or danger, while a fugitive is usually fleeing from the law.

FUNCT comes from the Latin verb fungi, “to perform, carry out.” If your car is functional, it's able to perform its function of providing transportation. But a functional illiterate is a person who, for all practical or functional purposes, might as well not be able to read or write at all.

FUS comes from the Latin verb fundere, “to pour out” or “to melt.”

GEN, which comes from the Greek genos, meaning “birth,” has generated dozens of English words. A set of genes, for instance, gives birth to a living being. And a genealogy is a historical map of your family, showing how each generation gave birth to the next.

GEO comes from the Greek word for “Earth.” Geography is the science that deals with features of the Earth's surface. Geologists study rocks and soil to learn about the Earth's history and resources. Geometry was originally about measuring portions of the Earth's surface, probably originally in order to determine where the boundaries of Egyptians' farms lay after the annual flooding by the Nile River.

GNI/GNO comes from a Greek and Latin verb meaning “to know,” and can be found at the root of know itself. Among other words built from this root, you may recognize (“know again”) some and be ignorant of (“not know”) others. But only an ignoramus would know absolutely none of them.

GRAD comes from the Latin noun gradus, “step” or “degree,” and the verb gradi, “to step, walk.” A grade is a step up or down on a scale of some kind, and a gradual change takes place in small steps.

GRAPH comes from the Greek verb graphein, “to write.” Thus, a biography is a written account of someone's life, a discography is a written list of recordings on disc (records or CDs), and a filmography is a list of motion pictures. But lots of uses of -graph and -graphy don't mean literally “writing” (as in autograph or paragraph), but instead something more like “recording,” as in photography, seismograph, or graph itself.

GRAT comes from the Latin words gratus, meaning “pleasing, welcome, or agreeable,” and gratia, meaning “grace, agreeableness, or pleasantness.” A meal that's served graciously will be received with gratitude by grateful guests; those who show no appreciation could be called ingrates.

GRAV comes from the Latin word meaning “heavy, weighty, serious.” Gravity is, of course, what makes things heavy, and without it there wouldn't be any life on earth, since nothing would stay on earth at all. This doesn't stop us from yelling in outrage when the familiar laws of gravity cause something to drop to the floor and break.

GREG comes from the Latin grex, “herd” or “flock.” Bees, starlings, cows— any creatures that like to live together in flocks or herds—are called gregarious, and the same word is used for people who enjoy companionship and are happiest when they're in the middle of a rowdy herd.

HER comes from the Latin verb haerere, meaning “to stick.” Another form of the verb produces the root hes-, seen in such words as adhesive, which means basically “sticky” or “sticking,” and hesitate, which means more or less “stuck in one place.”

HOL/HOLO, meaning “whole,” comes from the Greek word holos, with the same meaning.

HOM/HOMO comes from homos, the Greek word for “same,” which in English words may also mean “similar.” (This root has nothing to do with the Latin homo, meaning “person,” as in Homo sapiens, the French homme, and the Spanish hombre.)

HYDR flows from the Greek word for “water.”

HYP/HYPO is a Greek prefix meaning “below, under.”

HYPER is a Greek prefix that means “above or beyond,” so hyper- often means about the same thing as super-. Hyperinflation is inflation that's growing at a very high rate. To be hypercritical or hypersensitive is to be critical or sensitive beyond the normal. And if you hyperextend a knee or elbow, it means you're actually bending it backward.

ICON comes from the Greek eikon, which led to the Latin icon, both meaning “image.”

IDIO comes from the Greek idios, meaning “one's own” or “private.”

INTER comes straight from Latin and generally means “between.”

JECT comes from jacere, the Latin verb meaning “throw” or “hurl.” To reject something is to throw (or push) it back; to eject something is to throw (or drive) it out; and to inject something is to throw (or squirt) it into something else.

JUNCT comes from the Latin verb jungere, meaning “to join.” A junction is a place where roads or railways come together. A conjunction is a word that joins two other words or groups of words: “this and that,” “to be or not to be.”

JUR comes from the Latin verb jurare, “to swear, take an oath,” and the noun jus, “right or law.” A jury, made up of jurors, makes judgments based on the law. And a personal injury was originally something done to you that a court would find unjust.

KILO is the French version of the Greek word chilioi, meaning “thousand.”

KINE comes from the Greek word kinesis, meaning “movement.” Kinetic energy is the energy of motion (as opposed to potential energy, the kind of energy held by a stretched elastic band). Kinetic art is art that has moving parts, such as Alexander Calder's famous mobiles. And cinema, the art of moving pictures, actually comes from the same kine- root as well.

LATER comes from the Latin adjective lateralis, meaning “side.”

LEGA comes from the Latin legare, meaning “to appoint” or “to send as a deputy.” The same root actually shows up in such words as legal—but how the law connects with sending deputies can get awfully complicated and probably isn't worth going into.

LEV comes from the Latin adjective levis, meaning “light,” and the verb levare, meaning “to raise or lighten.” So a lever is a bar used to lift something, by means of leverage. And levitation is the magician's trick in which a body seems to rise into the air by itself.

LINGU comes from the Latin word that means both “tongue” and “language.”

LOG, from the Greek word logos, meaning “word,” “speech,” or “reason,” is found particularly in English words that end in -logy and -logue.

LONG comes from Latin longus, which means “long.”

LOQU comes from the Latin verb loqui, “to talk.”

LUC comes from the Latin noun lux, “light,” and the verb lucere, “to shine or glitter.” In ancient Rome, Lucifer, meaning “Light-bearer,” was the name given to the morning star, but the name was eventually transferred by Christians to Satan. This tradition, which dates back to the period before Christ, said that Lucifer had once been among the angels but had wanted to be the great light in the sky, and for his pride had been cast out of heaven and thus became the opponent of everything good.

LUM comes from the Latin noun lumen, meaning “light.”

MAL comes from a Latin word meaning "bad." A malady is a bad condition—a disease or illness—of the body or mind. Malpractice is bad medical practice. Malodorous things smell bad. And a malefactor is someone guilty of bad deeds.

MAND comes from mandare, Latin for “entrust” or “order.”

MANIA in Latin means “madness,” and the meaning passed over into English unchanged. Our word mania can mean a mental illness, or at least an excessive enthusiasm.

MAR, from the Latin word mare, meaning “sea,” brings its salty tang to several English words.

MATR/MATER comes from the Greek and Latin words for “mother.”

MEDI comes from the Latin medius, meaning “middle.” Our word medium refers to something in a middle position. The medieval period of European history, also known as the Middle Ages, is the period between Greek and Roman antiquity and the “modern age.”

META is a prefix in English that generally means “behind” or “beyond.” In medicine, for example, the metacarpal bones are the hand bones that come right after, or beyond, the carpal or wrist bones. And metalanguage is language used to talk about language, which requires going beyond normal language.

METR/METER comes to us from Greek by way of Latin; in both languages it refers to “measure.” A thermometer measures heat; a perimeter is the measure around something; and things that are isometric are equal in measure.

MICRO, from the Greek mikros, meaning “small,” is a popular English prefix.

MINI/MINU come from Latin words meaning “small” and “least.”

MIS comes from the Latin verb mittere, “to send.” A missile is something sent speeding through the air or water. And when your class is dismissed at the end of the day, you're sent home.

MOR/MORT comes from Latin words meaning “to die” and “death.” A mortuary is a place where dead bodies are kept until burial, and a postmortem examination is one conducted on a recently dead body. The Latin phrase “Memento mori” means “Remember that you must die” ; so a memento mori is the name we give to a reminder of death; the skulls you can find carved on gravestones in old cemeteries are examples.

MORPH comes from the Greek word for “shape.” Morph is itself an English word with a brand-new meaning, which was needed when we began to digitally alter photographic images or shapes to make them move or transform themselves in often astonishing ways.

MULTI comes from the Latin word multus, meaning “many.”

MUR comes from the Latin noun murus, meaning “wall.”

MUT comes from the Latin mutare, “to change.” Plenty of science-fiction movies—Godzilla, The Fly, The Incredible Shrinking Man—used to be made on the subject of weird mutations, changes in normal people or animals that usually end up causing death and destruction. What causes the unfortunate victim to mutate may be a mysterious or alien force, or perhaps invisible radiation. Though the science in these films isn't always right on target, the scare factor of an army of mutants can be hard to beat.

NANO comes from the Greek nanos, meaning “dwarf.”

NECRO comes from the Greek nekros, meaning “dead body,” so it's not surprising that it shows up in some unappetizing places.

NEG and its variants nec- and ne- are prefixes of denial or refusal in Latin, and the Latin verb negare means “to say no.” To negate something is to make it ineffective, and something negative denies, contradicts, refuses, or reverses.

NEO comes from the Greek neos, meaning “new.” Neo- has become a part of many English words. Some are easy to understand; for example, neo-Nazi. Some are less so; you might not immediately guess that neotropical means “from the tropics of the New World,” or that a neophyte is a “newcomer.” When William Ramsay discovered four new gases, he named them all using Greek roots that at first glance might sound slightly mysterious: argon (“idle”), krypton (“hidden”), xenon (“strange”)—and neon (“new”).

NOM comes from the Latin word for “name.” A nominee is a person “named”—or nominated—to run for or serve in office. A binomial (“two names”) is the scientific name for a species: Felis catus for the house cat, for example. A polynomial, with “many names,” is an algebra expression involving several terms: 2x2 + 9y – z3, for instance.

NOV comes from the Latin word novus, meaning “new.” To renovate an old house is to “make it new again”—that is, put it back in tip-top shape. The long-running PBS show Nova keeps its large audience up to date on what's new in the world of science. And when the British king sent Scottish settlers to a large island off Canada's Atlantic coast in the 17th century, he named it Nova Scotia, or “New Scotland.”

NUL/NULL comes from the Latin word nullus, “none,” which is itself a combination of ne- (“not”) and ullus (“any”).

NUMER comes from the Latin words meaning “number” and “to count.”

OID comes from the Greek word for “appearance” or “form.” Since aster in ancient Greek meant “star,” the small bodies orbiting between Mars and Jupiter that looked like stars through primitive telescopes were called asteroids. A factoid is a little bit of information that looks like a fact, whether it is or not.

OMNI comes from the Latin word omnis, meaning “all.”

ONYM comes from the Greek onyma, meaning “name, word.”

ORTHO comes from orthos, the Greek word for “straight,” “right,” or “true.” Orthotics is a branch of therapy that straightens out your stance or posture by providing artificial support for weak joints or muscles. And orthograde animals, such as human beings, walk with their bodies in a “straight” or vertical position.

PAC is related to the Latin words for “agree” and “peace.” The Pacific Ocean—that is, the “Peaceful Ocean”—was named by Ferdinand Magellan because it seemed so calm after he had sailed through the storms near Cape Horn. (Magellan obviously had never witnessed a Pacific typhoon.)

PALEO comes from the Greek palaios, meaning “ancient”—that is, “older than old.”

PAN comes from a Greek word meaning “all”; as an English prefix, it can also mean “completely,” “whole,” or “general.” A panoramic view is a complete view in every direction. A pantheon is a temple dedicated to all the gods of a religion. A pandemic outbreak of a disease may not affect the entire human population, but enough to produce a catastrophe.

PAR, from the Latin, means “equal.”

PARA is a Greek prefix usually meaning “beside” or “closely related to.” So parallel lines run beside each other. And a Greek paragraphos was originally a line written beside the main text of a play to show where a new person begins speaking; today we just start a new paragraph on a new line.

PART, from the Latin word pars, meaning “part,” comes into English most obviously in our word part. An apartment or compartment is part of a larger whole. The same is usually true of a particle.

PATER/PATR comes from both the Greek and the Latin word for “father.” So a patron, for example, is someone who assumes a fatherly role toward an institution or project or individual, giving moral and financial support.

PATH comes from the Greek word pathos, which means “feeling” or “suffering.”

PED comes from the Latin word for “foot.” A pedal is pushed by the foot; a pedicure is a treatment of the feet, toes, and toenails; and a pedestal is what a statue stands on—in a sense, its foot.

PED- comes from the Greek word for “child.” The same root also has the meaning “foot” (see PED), but in English words it usually isn't hard to tell the two apart.

PEL comes from the Latin verb pellere, meaning “to move or drive.” So a propeller moves a small airplane forward. And if you dispel someone's fears, you “drive them away.”

PEN/PUN comes from the Latin words poena, “penalty,” and punire, “to punish.”

PEND comes from the Latin verb pendere, meaning “to hang” or “to weigh.” (In the Roman era, weighing something large often required hanging it from a hook on one side of the balance scales.) We find the root in English words like appendix, referring to that useless and sometimes troublesome tube that hangs from the intestine, or that section at the back of some books that might contain some useful additional information.

PER is a Latin preposition that generally means “through,” “throughout,” or “thoroughly.” Thus, perforate means “to bore through,” perennial means “throughout the years,” and permanent means “remaining throughout.” And the “thoroughly” sense shows up in persuade, for “thoroughly advise,” and perverted, “thoroughly turned around.”

PERI, in both Latin and Greek, means “around.” A period is often a span of time that keeps coming around regularly, day after day or year after year. With a periscope, you can see around corners. Peristalsis is the process that moves food around the intestines; without it, digestion would grind to a halt.

PHIL comes from the Greek word meaning “love.” In philosophy, it's joined with sophia, “wisdom,” so philosophy means literally “love of wisdom.” When joined with biblio-, “book,” the result is bibliophile, or “lover of books.” And Philadelphia, containing the Greek word adelphos, “brother,” was named by its Quaker founder, William Penn, as the city of “brotherly love.”

PHOB comes from the Greek noun phobos, “fear.”

PHON is a Greek root meaning “sound,” “voice,” or “speech.” It's probably most familiar in the form of the English suffix -phone, in words that begin with a Greek or Latin root as well.

PHOT comes from the Greek word for “light.” Photography uses light to create an image on film or paper, and a photocopy is an image made by using light and tiny electrically charged ink particles.

PLAC comes from the Latin placere, “to please or be agreeable to,” or placare, “to soothe or calm.” Pleasant, pleasurable, and pleasing all derive from this root, even though their spelling makes it hard to see.

PLE/PLEN comes from a Latin word meaning “to fill.” It can be seen in the words plenty, meaning basically “filled,” and complete, meaning “thoroughly filled.”

POLIS/POLIT comes from the Greek word for “city.”

POLY comes from polys, the Greek word for “many.”

POPUL comes from the Latin word meaning “people.”

PORT comes from the Latin verb portare, meaning “to carry.” Thus, something portable can be carried around. A porter carries your luggage, whether through a train station or high into the Himalayas. When we transport something, we have it carried from one place to another. And goods for export are carried away to another country.

POS comes from the Latin verb ponere, meaning “to put” or “to place.” You expose film by “placing it out” in the light. You compose a song by “putting together” a series of notes. And you oppose locating a new prison in your town by “putting yourself against” it.

POST comes from a Latin word meaning “after” or “behind.” A postscript (or PS) is a note that comes after an otherwise completed letter, usually as an afterthought. Postpartum refers to the period following childbirth, with any related events and complications. To postdate a check is to give it a date after the day it was written.

POT comes from the Latin adjective potens, meaning “able.” Our English word potent means “powerful” or “effective,” whether for good or bad. A potent new antibiotic might be able to deal with infections that have developed resistance to older drugs; an industrial gas might be identified as a potent contributor to climate change; and a potent drink might leave you staggering.

PRE, one of the most common of all English prefixes, comes from prae, the Latin word meaning “before” or “in front of.” So a prediction forecasts what will happen before it occurs. The 5:00 TV news precedes the 6:00 news. And someone with a prejudice against a class of people has judged them before having even met them.

PREHEND/PREHENS comes from the Latin verb prehendere, “to seize.” Most of the English words where it appears are closely related to the ones discussed below.

PRIM comes from primus, the Latin word for “first.”

PRO is an important prefix, with a couple of quite different broad meanings. In this section, we'll look at words in which pro- has the basic meaning “for” or “favoring.” Everyone knows words like pro-democracy and pro-American, but other pro- words may not be quite so self-explanatory.

PRO, in its other broad meaning, means “before, in front of.” So, for example, to proceed means “to move out in front” ; to progress means to “to move forward”; and somebody prominent stands out, as if he or she were actually standing out in front of the crowd.

PROB comes from the Latin words for “prove or proof” and “honesty or integrity.” A probe, whether it's a little object for testing electrical circuits or a spacecraft headed for Mars, is basically something that's looking for evidence or proof. And probable originally described something that wasn't certain but might be “provable.”

PROP/PROPRI comes from the Latin word proprius, meaning “own.”

PROT/PROTO comes from Greek and has the basic meaning “first in time” or “first formed.” Protozoa are one-celled animals, such as amoebas and paramecia, that are among the most basic members of the biological kingdom. A proton is an elementary particle that, along with neutrons, can be found in all atomic nuclei. A protoplanet is a whirling mass of gas and dust that astronomers believe may someday become a planet.

PSYCH comes from the Greek word psyche, meaning “breath, life, soul.” Psychology is the science of mind and behavior, and a psychologist treats or studies the mental problems of individuals and groups. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with mental and emotional disorders, and a psychiatrist (like any other doctor) may prescribe drugs to treat them.

PUNC comes from the Latin noun punctum, meaning “point.” A period is a form of punctuation that's literally a point, and a punctured tire has been pricked by a sharp point.

PURG comes from the Latin verb purgare, “to clean or cleanse.” Almost all the English words where it shows up are closely related to those discussed below.

PUT comes from the Latin verb putare, meaning “to think, consider, or believe.” So, for example, a reputation is what others think of you.

QUIS is derived from the Latin verb meaning “to seek or obtain.” The roots quer, quir, and ques are derived from the same Latin verb and give us words such as inquiry and question.

RE is a prefix which, like pro- (see PRO), has more than one meaning. In this section, we'll focus on the meaning “again.” We use re- words with this meaning every day—redo, reheat, recheck, reread, resell, repaint, etc.—and we feel free to make up new ones as needed. But in plenty of other re- words, the meaning isn't so obvious.

RE-, in its other main sense, means “back” or backward.” Since doing something again means going back to it, the two senses are actually related; still, the meaning of re- in most words is pretty clearly one or the other. So a rebound comes back at you; to recall means to “callback” a memory; and to react is to “act back” at someone else's action.

RECT comes from the Latin word rectus, which means “straight” or “right.” To correct something is to make it right. A rectangle is a four-sided figure with straight parallel sides. Rectus, short for Latin rectus musculus, may refer to any of several straight muscles, such as those of the abdomen.

REG, from the Latin regula, meaning “rule,” has given us many English words. Something regular follows a rule of some kind, even if it's just a law of nature. A regime can be a form of rule or government. To regulate an industry means to make and enforce rules, or regulations, for it; removing such rules is called deregulation.

RETRO means “back,” “backward,” or “behind” in Latin.

SANCT, meaning “holy,” comes from the Latin word sanctus.

SCEND comes from the Latin verb scandere, “to climb.”

SCI comes from the Latin verb scire, “to know” or “to understand.” The root appears in such common words as science, which originally meant simply “knowledge,” and conscience, meaning “moral knowledge.” And to be conscious is to be in a state where you are able to know or understand.

SCOP, which usually appears in a suffix, comes from the Greek skopein, meaning “to look at.” In English we have the simple noun scope, along with some other words it sometimes stands for: telescope, microscope, periscope, and so on.

SCRIB/SCRIP comes from the Latin verb scribere, “to write.”

SENS comes from the Latin noun sensus, meaning “feeling” or “sense.” Sense itself obviously comes straight from the Latin. A sensation is something you sense. And if you're sensitive, you feel or sense things sharply, maybe even too sharply.

SEQU comes from the Latin verb sequi, meaning “to follow.” A sequel follows the original novel, film, or television show.

SERV means “to be subject to.”

SIGN comes from the Latin noun signum, “mark or sign.” A signal is a kind of sign. Your signature is your own personal sign. And an architect's design marks out the pattern for a building.

SIMIL/SIMUL come from the Latin adjective similis, meaning “like, resembling, similar,” and the verb simulare, “to make like.”

SOLU comes from the Latin verb solvere, “to loosen, free, release,” and the root therefore may take the form solv- as well.

SON is the Latin root meaning “sound.” Sonata, meaning a piece for one or two instruments, was originally an Italian verb meaning “sounded” (when singers were involved, the Italians used a different verb). And sonorous means full, loud, or rich in sound.

SOPH come from the Greek words meaning “wise” and “wisdom.” In English the root sometimes appears in words where the wisdom is of the “wise guy” variety, but in words such as philosophy we see it used more respectfully.

SPECT comes from the Latin verb specere, meaning “to look at,” and produces several familiar English words. Spectacles can be glasses that you look through; but a spectacle can also be a remarkable sight

SPHER comes from the Greek word for “ball.” A ball is itself a sphere, as is the ball that we call Earth. So is the atmosphere, and so are several other invisible “spheres” that encircle the Earth.

SPIR comes from the Latin words meaning “breath” and “breathe.”

STRAT comes from the Latin word stratum, meaning “spread” or “bed.”

STRICT comes from the Latin verb meaning “to draw tight, bind, or tie.”

STRU/STRUCT comes from the Latin verb struere, meaning “to put together, build, arrange.”

SUB means “under.” So a subway runs under the streets, and a submarine moves under the ocean's surface. A subject is a person under the authority of another. A movie's subplot is lower in importance than the main plot. Subscribe once meant “to write one's name underneath,” so subscription was the act of signing a document or agreement.

SUPER, a Latin prefix meaning “over, higher, more than,” has become one of the most familiar prefixes in English.

SUR is actually a shortening of the Latin prefix super-, meaning “over, above”.

SURG comes from the Latin verb surgere, meaning “to rise, spring up.”

SYN is a Greek and Latin prefix meaning “together” or “at the same time.”

TANG/TACT comes from the Latin words tangere, “to touch,” and tactus, “sense of touch.” So, for instance, to make contact is to touch or “get in touch with.”

TECHNI/TECHNO comes from the Greek techne, meaning “art, craft, skill.”

TELE has as its basic meanings “distant” or “at a distance.” A telescope is for looking at far-off objects; a camera's telephoto lens magnifies a distant scene for a photograph; and a television lets us watch things taking place far away.

TEMPER comes from the Latin verb temperare, “to moderate or keep within limits” or “to mix.” Most of the world's people live in the temperate zone—that is, the zone where the temperature is moderate, between the hot tropics and the icy Arctic and Antarctic Circles. It's less easy to see how we get temperature from this root; the word actually used to refer to the mixing of different basic elements in the body, and only slowly came to mean how hot or cold that body was.

TEMPOR comes from the Latin tempus, meaning “time.”

TEN, from the Latin verb tenere, basically means “hold” or “hold on to.” A tenant is the “holder” of an apartment, house, or land, but not necessarily the owner. A lieutenant governor may “hold the position” ( “serve in lieu”) of the governor when necessary.

TEN/TENU comes from the Latin tenuis, meaning “thin.”

TERM/TERMIN comes from the Latin verb terminare, “to limit, bound, or set limits to,” and the noun terminus, “limit or boundary.” In English, those boundaries or limits tend to be final. A term goes on for a given amount of time and then ends, and to terminate a sentence or a meeting or a ballgame means to end it.

TERR comes from the Latin terra, “earth.”

TEXT comes from a Latin verb that means “to weave.” So a textile is a woven or knitted cloth. The material it's made from determines its texture, the smoothness or roughness of its surface. And individual words are “woven” into sentences and paragraphs to form a text.

THE/THEO comes from the Greek word meaning “god.”

THERM/THERMO comes from the Greek word meaning “warm.”

TOP comes from topos, the Greek word for “place.”

TORT comes from a form of the Latin verb torquere, meaning “to twist, wind, or wrench.”

TOXI comes from the Greek and Latin words for “poison.”

TRACT comes from trahere, the Latin verb meaning “drag or draw.” Something attractive draws us toward it. Something distracting pulls your attention away. And when you extract something from behind the sofa, you drag it out.

TRANS comes from Latin to indicate movement “through, across, or beyond” something. Translation carries a writer's meaning from one language to another. A television signal is sent or transmitted through the air (or a cable) to your set.

TRIB comes from the Latin tribuere, meaning “to give” or “to pay.”

TROP comes from the Greek tropos, meaning “turn” or “change.” The troposphere is the level of the atmosphere where most weather changes—or “turns in the weather”—occur. And the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn are the lines of latitude where the sun is directly overhead when it reaches its northernmost and southernmost points, on about June 22 and December 22 every year—that is, the point where it seems to turn and go back the other way.

TROPH comes from the Greek trophe, meaning “nourishment.” This particular troph- root doesn't show up in many everyday English words (the troph- in words like trophy, apostrophe, and catastrophe has a different meaning), but instead tends to appear in scientific terms.

TURB comes from the Latin verb turbare, “to throw into confusion or upset,” and the noun turba, “crowd” or “confusion.”

TUT/TUI comes from a Latin verb meaning “to look after,” and in English the root generally shows up in words that include the meaning “guide,” “guard,” or “teach”—such as tutor, the name for a private teacher who guides a student (or tutee) through a subject.

UMBR comes from the Latin umbra, meaning “shadow.”

UND comes into English from the Latin words unda, “wave,” and undare, “to rise in waves,” “to surge or flood.”

URB comes from the Latin noun for “city.”

VAL has as its basic meaning “strength,” from the Latin verb valere, meaning “to be worthy, healthy, or strong” and “to have power or influence.”

VER comes from the Latin word for “truth.”

VERB comes from the Latin verbum, meaning "word." A verb—or action word—appears in some form in every complete sentence. To express something verbally—or to verbalize something—is to say it or write it.

VERT comes from the Latin verb vertere, meaning “to turn” or “to turn around.” Vertigo is the dizziness that makes it seem as if everything is turning around you. And an advertisement turns your attention to a product or service.

VEST comes from the Latin verb vestire, “to clothe” or “to dress,” and the noun vestis, “clothing” or “garment.”

VIR is Latin for “man.”

VIS comes from a Latin verb meaning “see.” Vision is what enables us to see, visual images are visible to our eyes, and a visitor is someone who comes to see something.

VIV comes from vivere, the Latin verb meaning “to live or be alive.”

VOC comes from the Latin words meaning “voice” and “speak.” So a vocal ensemble is a singing group. A vocation was originally a “calling” from God to do religious work as a priest, monk, or nun, though today most people use the word just to mean a career. And a vocabulary is a set of words for speaking.

VOLU/VOLV comes from the Latin verb volvere, meaning “to roll, wind, turn around, or twist around.”

VOR comes from the Latin verb vorare, “to eat,” and the ending -ivorous shows up in words that refer to eaters of certain kinds of food. Frugivorous (for “fruit-eating”), granivorous (for “grain-eating”), and graminivorous (for “grass-eating”) aren't too rare, but you won't run across phytosuccivorous (“plant-sap-eating”) every day.