7 Answers
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Here is something from a website (BBC).
~~What are root words?
A root word is a word that has nothing added at the beginning or the end. It stands on its own as a word, it has a meaning. New words can be made from root words by adding beginnings (prefixes) and endings (suffixes).
A root word is a real word and you make new words from it by adding prefixes and suffixes.
For example, clear is a root word. By adding prefixes and suffixes you can make these new words:
unclear, clearly, cleared.
All of these words have grown from their root word. They share parts of the same spelling and they are linked in terms of meaning. They are known as a word family.
In a word family all the words share parts of the same spelling and have linked meaning.
Root words are helpful because:
You can use a root word to help you with other spellings.
If you recognise the root of a word when you are reading it can help you to work out what the word is and what it means.
There are spelling rules for adding suffixes and prefixes to root words. To find out more visit the Skillswise Suffixes and Prefixes modules.
Here are some more examples of root words and the word families that grow from them:
use: useless, usable, used, using, user, misuse
employ: employment, unemployment, employer, employee, employing
manage: manager, managing, manages, manageable, unmanageable
beauty: beautiful, beautifully, beautician
faith: faithful, faithfully, unfaithful, unfaithfully~~~
Now, after that long thing, if you’ve read this far, here’s another take on root words. (I wrote this one.)
A root word is a word, usually Greek or Latin, that a word in our language is derived from.
We have a game called “Rummy Roots”– I highly recommed it!— that’s a game of, what else, rummy, but it uses Greek and Latin root words and you match those with the English.
For example, “manus” means “hand.”
“Aqua” is “water.”
There are harder ones, too.
It really helps to know the root words, because it helps you *connect* lots of things. It makes it easier to make an educated guess of what a word means.
Take “homophone” and “homograph,” for instance.
“Homo” means “the same” (that helps out with other words, too! Like in science– a “homogenous solution”).
“Phone” is sound—
which makes sense!
A telephone. Interestingly, “tele” means “far away.”
“Graph” has to do with writing.
Very cool.
Learn your roots!
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What Is A Root Word
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This Site Might Help You.
RE:
what’s a root word?
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A root word is a word that contains the basic meaning; take the prefixes and suffixes off and you are left with the basic word. Example – Audience: audi is the root word, it means to hear
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In simplest terms, a root word is a word (which can be from any language) which one has used to form another word with. It is the base of the word, or a part of the word.
For instance, the word psychology was taken from the New Latin “psychologia”.
“Psych” comes from Greek, and it means life, soul, spirit or self.
“-Logy”, which also comes from Greek (once you trace it back through Middle English, Old English and Latin), means word, reason, speech or account.
We combine these to make “psychology”, which means science of the mind, or reason of the self if you want to take it from the words.
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a root has to be a word used by itself for one or more meanings to be conveyed in a language.
And then it has to be used as a structural; element for forming upon its basis longer and other or altered words.
Wall means something
Wall-flower, cross-wall, wall paper, stonewall, etc. are words that use wall as a “root”.
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The root word is the primary base of a word. 1. root word is ped – it means foot 2. root word is mort – it means dead
