Ms - Wappingers Central School District



Ms. Fleming’s Vocabulary Cheat Sheet

No matter how great of a vocabulary you have, sometimes you stumble across a word you don’t know. We have talked about using context clues, or using the words that surround the unknown word, to figure out the unknown words meaning. Today, you will learn how to use the unknown word itself to figure out the meaning.

A Prefix is a group of letters that appears at the front of a word. A prefix affects the root (base) word to which it is attached. To determine whether or not a group of letters is a prefix, remove them from the word. The letters are a prefix if a known word remains.

Example: Remove the letter “un” from the following words: unhappy, untie, and uninterested.

Most Common Prefixes

| | | |

|Prefix |Meaning |Key Word |

|anti- |against |antifreeze |

|de- |opposite |defrost |

|dis- |not, opposite of |disagree |

|en- , em- |cause to |embrace, encode |

|fore- |before |forecast |

|in- , em- |in |infield |

|in-, im-, ir- |not |injustice, impossible |

|inter- |between |interact |

|mid- |middle |midway |

|mis- |wrongly |misfire |

|non- |not |nonsense |

|over- |over |overlook |

|pre- |before |prefix |

|re- |again |return |

|demi- |half |semicircle |

|sub- |under |submarine |

|super- |above |superstar |

|trans- |across |transport |

|un- |not |unfriendly |

|under- |under |undersea |

A Suffix is a letter, or group of letters, that is added to the end of a root (base) word. You need to understand the meaning of suffixes and how they affect the words they are attached to. Finding suffixes is more difficult than finding prefixes because sometimes the spelling of a word changes when you add a suffix.

Most Common Suffixes

| | | |

|Suffix |Meaning |Key Word |

|-able, -ible |can be done |comfortable |

|-al, -ial |having characteristics of |personal |

|-ed |past-tense verbs |hopped |

|-en |made of |wooden |

|-er |comparative |higher |

|-er |one who |worker, actor |

|-est |comparative |biggest |

|-ful |full of |careful |

|-ic |having characteristics of |linguistic |

|-ing |verb form |running |

|-ion, -tion, -ation, -ition |act, process |occasion, attraction |

|-ity, -ty |state of |infinity |

|-ive, -ative, -itive |adjective form of a noun |plaintive |

|-less |without |fearless |

|-ly |characteristic of |quickly |

|-ment |action or process |enjoyment |

|-ness |state of, condition of |kindness |

|-ous, -eous, -ious |possessing the qualities of |joyous |

|-s, - es |more than one |books, boxes |

|-y |characterized by |happy |

| | | |

A Root is a word part to which a prefix and/or a suffix must be added. A root cannot stand alone. A word root cannot stand alone but must be combined wit h other word parts. A great many roots used in our language come from Greek or Latin. A single root can generate many English words.

Useful Greek Roots

|Root |Meaning |Example |

|aster, astr |star |asterisk (*) |

|auto |self, alone |autobiography |

|bibl ,biblio |book |bibliography |

|bi, bio |life |biology |

|chron |time |chronology |

|cracy, crat |rule, government |democracy |

|gram, graph |write, draw, describe |grammar, paragraph |

|meter, metr |measure |thermometer |

|neo |new |neoclassical |

|ortho |straight, correct |orthodontist, orthodox |

|phob |fear |claustrophobia |

|phon |sound |telephone |

|psych |mind, soul, spirit |psychology |

|scope |see |telescope |

|tele |far, distant |telescope |

|therm |heat |thermometer |

Useful Latin Roots

|Root |Meaning |Example |

|capt, cept |take, have |capture, accept |

|cede, ceed, cess |go, yield, give way |secede, proceed, recess |

|dic, dict |speak, say, tell |dictate, dictionary |

|duc, duct |lead |introduce, conductor |

|fact, fect |do, make |factory, defect |

|ject |throw, hurl |eject, inject |

|mob, mot, mov |move |mobility, motion, movie |

|pon, pos, posit |place, put |opponent, deposit |

|port |carry |porter, portable |

|puls |throb, urge |pulsate, compulsory |

|scrib, script |write |prescribe, scripture |

|tain, ten, tent |hold |contain, tenant, attention |

|ven, vent |come |convention, event |

|vers, vert |turn |versatile, invert |

|vid, vis |see |video, vista |

|voc, vok |voice, call |vocal, invoke |

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