In one line
A root is the core part of a word that carries its basic meaning, and knowing common roots lets you decode many related words you have never seen.
Explained simply
Once you know that 'tele' means far and 'phone' means sound, telephone, telescope and telepathy suddenly make sense. Roots are like Lego bricks: learn a few, and you can understand hundreds of words built from them.
Technically, a large part of English vocabulary, especially academic and technical words, comes from Latin and Greek roots. A word = (prefix) + root + (suffix). Root knowledge is tested in vocabulary sections of exams like CAT, GRE, GMAT, TOEFL and IELTS, which the MU syllabus uses as its difficulty benchmark.
How it works
| Root | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| bene | good, well | benefit, benevolent, beneficiary |
| chron | time | chronology, synchronise, chronic |
| graph / scrib | write | autograph, describe, manuscript |
| port | carry | transport, portable, export |
| spect | look | inspect, spectator, perspective |
| dict | say | predict, dictate, contradict |
| aud | hear | audible, audience, audit |
| ject | throw | project, reject, inject |
| tract | pull, draw | tractor, attract, extract |
| phil | love | philosophy, philanthropy |
- Break the unknown word into prefix, root and suffix.
- Recall the meaning of each part.
- Combine them and check the result against the sentence context.
Quick example
Word: 'malevolent'. Break it: mal (bad) + vol (wish) + -ent (adjective). Meaning: wishing harm to others. Check in context: 'The hacker had malevolent intentions.' The meaning fits. Similarly, 'retract' = re (back) + tract (pull) = to pull back or withdraw a statement.
Common mistakes
- Relying only on roots and ignoring context; some words have drifted from their root meaning.
- Confusing similar-looking roots, such as 'phil' (love) and 'phob' (fear).
- Memorising lists without practising them in sentences.
How MU asks it
Appears as objective items (MCQs: 'The root "chron" means...') or short questions like 'Give the meaning of the root and two words formed from it' (2 to 3 marks), in IAT and end-semester papers. Learn about 25 common roots with two examples each and practise breaking words into parts.