Root Words: Definition, Lists, and Examples

What Are Root Words?

Root Words Meaning - Root words are the basic parts of a word that carry the main meaning. They work like the building blocks of language. By learning root words in English, you can understand many new words without memorising each one. Sometimes a root word can stand alone as a complete word, like “heat”, while other times it needs prefixes and suffixes to make a complete word.

Learning root words prefixes and suffixes helps you understand the meaning of many words, improve your vocabulary, and even improve your performance in exams and other competitive exams, where English vocabulary is important.

Read More: Describing Words

Root Word Examples

Root words can change when we add prefixes or suffixes, but their actual meaning remains the same. Here are some easy root word examples to help you understand how they work:

• The root word act means “to do”. From this, we get words like action, actor, and react.

• Play means “to perform or engage in an activity.” Root word examples from this are playful, replay, and display.

• Port means “to carry.” Examples are transport, portable, and import.

• View means “to see or look.” Root word examples include review, preview, and viewpoint come from this root.

• Help means “to aid.” From it, we get helpful, helpless, and helpers.

Learning these root word examples helps you guess the meaning of new words easily and makes learning English very simple to understand.

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Root Words List

The root words list given here helps you understand the main parts of words and their meanings. Learning these roots makes it easy to understand many new words in English. Here are some common root words with their meanings and examples:

Read More: Singular and Plural Words

Tips to Identify Root Words in a Word

While learning English grammar, understanding root words is very important because it makes reading, writing, and vocabulary easy. When you know how to find root words in English, you can understand many new words quickly without memorising every word.

1. Look for Prefixes and Suffixes

Many words have prefixes (letters at the start) and suffixes (letters at the end). Removing them can show the root word. For example: in unhappy, “un-” is the prefix, and happy is the root.

2. Remove Extra Letters to See the Base

Sometimes, taking away the extra parts of a word helps find the main meaning. For example, in transportation, removing “trans-” and “-ation” leaves port, which means “to carry.”

3. Use Context to Find the Root

Some words may look like they have a prefix, but they don’t. Reading the word in the sentence can show the true root. For example, in submit, “sub-” is not extra; the whole word submit is the root.

4. Learn Common Greek and Latin Roots

Many English words come from Greek or Latin roots. Knowing them helps you understand word meaning. For example, Graph means “write”. So, an autograph means self-written.

5. Practice On a Regular Basis

The more you read and notice roots in words, the easier it becomes for you to identify root words. Practice helps you understand words faster and improve your vocabulary.

Read More: Compound Words

Root Words With Prefixes and Suffixes

We can combine root words with prefixes and suffixes to make new words. Prefixes are letters we add at the beginning of a word, and suffixes are letters added at the end. They can change the meaning of the word or the type of word.

For example, prefixes like dis- and un- change the meaning to the opposite. Suffixes can change the word type. Check the list of root words with prefixes and suffixes:

Sometimes, root words can act like affixes too. For example, astro means “star.” Alone, it is not a word, but it can make new words like astronomy or astronaut. This shows how prefixes and suffixes can change words in many ways.

Also Read: Words Start With I

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