MEPX
Chapter 9 of 10All chapters
  1. 1Why context works
  2. 2The four clue types
  3. 3Word parts
  4. 4Shades of meaning
  5. 5Building vocabulary
  6. 6Vocabulary in exams
  7. 7Figurative use
  8. 8Academic and formal words
  9. 9Latin and Greek roots
  10. 10Keeping it

Chapter 9 of 10

Latin and Greek roots

Families of words.

Worth knowing

Dict speak, scrib write, spec look, port carry, ject throw, vert turn, struct build, cred believe, chron time, bio life, graph write.

  • One root unlocks a whole family: dictate, predict, contradict, dictionary.
  • Greek roots dominate scientific vocabulary, Latin the legal and administrative.

Guessing well

Combine root, prefix and context, then check. Intractable: in- not, tract- pull, -able able to be, so not able to be pulled or managed.