Root Words in English: Definition, Meaning & Synonyms

Root words: Roots words in English help you understand English vocabulary easily. These independent words combine with the suffixes or prefixes to generate a new word. The basic structure of the root word is affixed or suffixed and forms a new word.

Understanding root words in English is essential because the English language has now become the standard language in the world, so it is necessary to know about the root words in English.

Root words can be defined as stand-alone words in the English Dictionary. Almost 120 root words are found in the english dictionary; these commonly originated from Greek or Latin words.

This article will discuss root words, their meaning, examples, and the difference between other words and root words.

The Meaning of Root Words

Root Words are considered the building blocks of words that need suffixes and prefixes to make a word that will make sense. The root word is the fundamental part before adding at the beginning or the end of a word. It is a complete word that cannot be further broken into segments.

For example, if you start with the word uncomfortable and remove the prefix un- and the suffix -able, the leftover word will be comforted. The word “comfort” is called as the root word.

Learning about Root words helps you understand the more significant words more easily. Challenging texts can be read easily if one understands the concept of the root word involved in any word.

What are Prefixes and Suffixes?

Understanding the concept of prefixes and suffixes helps you know the root words much more quickly.

Prefixes

The words added at the start of a root word are commonly defined as prefixes.

Words given in the table below will help you understand the meaning of Prefixes in a better way:

S.No.	Prefixes	Meaning	Examples
1.	Mono	Single	Monotomy, Monochrome
2.	Non	Without	Nonsense
3.	Omni	All	Omnivores
4.	Post	After	Posterior
5.	Circum	Around	Circumstances
6.	Co	Together	Co-exist
7.	De	Down	Deduce
8.	Dis	Apart	Disadvantage
9.	Ex	Out of	Extract
10.	Extra	More thab	Extracurricular
11.	Hyper	Over	Hyperactive
12.	In	Into	Inter

Suffixes

Root words which can be modified by placing the other words at the end of them are called suffixes. CCheck out few suffixes examples in the table below:

S.No.	Suffixes	Meaning	Examples
1.	-acy	State or quality	Privacy
2.	-al	Act or process	Refusal
3.	-ance	State or quality of	Maintenance
4.	-dom	Place or state of being	Freedom
5.	-ist	One who	Chemist, Plagiarist
6.	-able	Able to be	Inflatable
7.	-less	Without	Lifeless
8.	-like	Similar to	Lifelike
9.	-ous	Full Of	Beautiful
10.	-some	A tendency to	Quarrelsome
11.	-ly	In a Manner	Quickly
12.	-ess	Makes a Feminine form	Waitress

S.No.	Root word	Meaning	Example
1.	Arbor	Tree	Arboreal
2.	Cred	Believe	Credible
3.	Script	Old	Scripture
4.	Act	To Move	Acting
5.	Crypt	To Hide	Cryptology
6.	Form	Shape	Formula
7.	Legal	Related to Law	Legally
8.	Meter	Unit of Measurement	Kilometer, Centimeter
9.	Phobia	Fear	Hydrophobia
10.	Norm	Typical	Abnormal, Normality

Root Words That are Common English Words

There are certain root words that form a standalone word of its own or as part of other common words in the English language. Given below are some common English words that are root words as well:

• Act – meaning – to move or do, other English words-  actor, acting, reenact
• Crypt – Meaning – to hide, other English words –  cryptic, apocryphal, cryptography
• Ego – meaning – Self-importance, Other words formed of it egotist, egocentric, egomaniac
• Legal – meaning – related to the law, other words in English – illegal, legalities, paralegal
• Form – meaning – shape, words formed from it – conform, reform, formulate
• Phobia – meaning – fear – words formed from this root word are already discussed above.
• Norm – meaning – typical, other English words – abnormal, paranormal, normality.

Root Words from the Greek Language

Many of the root words in the English vocabulary are derived from the Greek and the Latin words. English originated from various ancestral languages, mainly Greek and Latin, that share the same root word. Few common Greek root words are mentioned with the meaning in the table below:

S.No.	Greek root words	Meaning	Example
1.	anti	against	antobacterial, antidote
2.	auto	self	authomatic, automate
3.	bibilo	book	bibliophile
4.	bio	life	biology,biography
5 .	chrome	color	monochrome
6.	geo	earth	geography
7.	graph	write	autograph
8.	hydro	water	hydrology
9.	log	thought	logic
10.	path	feel	pathetic
11.	tele	far	telescope
12.	photo	Light	photograph

Common Latin Root Words

The root words in the English dictionary are derived from the Latin language and are known as Latin root words. Here are the examples of Latin root words listed in tabular form:

S.No.	Root words	Meaning	Examples
1.	ab	to move away	abstract
2.	aqua	water	aquarium
3.	audio	hear	audiology
4.	circ	round	circus, circle
5.	dict	say	dictation
6.	gen	birth	generate
7.	menu	By hand	manual
8.	Luc	light	lucid
9.	omni	all	omnivores
10.	port	carry	import, airport,export
11.	terr	earth	Territory
12.	vac	empty	vaccum

Difference Between Base Words and Root Words in English Vocabulary

In the English Dictionary, there are base words and root words. People often need clarification on the base word and the root words. We have explained the difference between the base and root words in this tabular form.

Root Words	Base Words
Root words are not independent entities; they need suffixes or prefixes along with them to form a new word.	These are separate entities; they create a meaning. These words can need suffixes or prefixes, but they are not necessary.
Examples: Aqua Bio Luc Dis Un Anti	Examples: Place Legal Do Spell Sun Vent

Conclusion

Finally, root words in the English dictionary are words that need a word in the beginning and at the end to form a complex word, basically derived from Latin or Greek. The string of words attached at the beginning of a word is called prefixes, and the string of words linked at the end of root words is called suffixes.

Root Words in English- FAQs

How many root words are found in the English Dictionary?

Ans. There are almost 120 root words found in the English Dictionary.

What is the Major root of English?

Ans. The English language has its roots in Germanic people from Northern Europe.

Why is understanding root words in English so important?

Ans. The English language is considered the standard language in the world, so learning root words is essential.

Do all words in English have roots?

Ans. Each word in English has a root word, and it can have either a suffix or a prefix.