English Prefixes for Vocabulary Skills

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a/an: without, absense of, no acer/acid/acri: harsh, bitter, sour act/ag: drive, do, lead, act, move acu: sharp ad: to, toward ac/af/ag/al/an/ap/ar/as/af: before consonant aev/ev: age, era agog: leader agri: field ali: other alim: support, nourish, cherish alter: other alt: high, deep am: love, liking amb/ambul: to go, to walk ambi: around, on both sides annu/anni/enni: yearly ant/ante: before ant/anti: against, opposite anthrop: mankind, human being antiqu: old, ancient appell: name, to call upon apt/ept: skill, ability aqu/aqua: water arch: first, chief, ruler, superior arm/arma: weapons art: art astro/aster: star aud/audi/aus: bold, daring, listen, hear aug/aux: increase auto: self be: thoroughly, over bel/bell: war ben/bon: well, good, favorable bi: two, twice, double bio: life brev: short cap/capt/cept/cip: hold, seize, take cap/capit: head card/cord: heart carn: flesh, body cata: down, downward ced/ceed/cess: yield, surrender, move, go celer: swift centr: center cent: hundred cert: certain chron: time, a long time cid/cis: cut, kill circu/circum: around cit/citat: to call, start civ: citizen clam/claim: call out, shout clemen: mild, kind, merciful claud/claus/clos/clud/clus: shut, close cli/clin/cliv: learning, inclined, sloped co/col/com/con/cor: together, with cod: book cogni/gno: learn, know contra/contro: against, opposite corp: body cosm: universe cracy/crat: government, rule, strength crea: bring forth, create cred: believe, trust cre/cresc/cret/cru: rise, grow crit: separate, judge cour/cur: run, course cur/cura: care cyc/cyclo: circle, wheel, cycle de: from, down, away, against, thoroughly intensive dec/deca: ten dei/div: god demi: partly dem: common people derm: skin di: double, two dia: across, through, between dic/dict: to say, speak, pronounce dif/dis: apart, away, negative, not don: to give doc/doct: teach, prove dog/dox: opinion, belief, praise dom/domin: master, lord dorm: sleep drom/drome: run, step, arena duc/duct: lead, pull dupl: double, two dur: hard, lasting dyn/dynam: power, energy dys: bad, impaired, abnormal e/ex: apart, above, away, beyond, from, out intensive ecto: outside, external ego: I, self endo: within, inside epi: upon, near, over equ: equal erg: work err: wonder, mistake eth/ethos: character eu: good, well extr/extro: besides, beyond, outside of, more fac/fic/fec: do, make fall/fals: deceptive, false, erroneous fed: league, pact fer: hear, carry fid: faith, trust fin: end flect/flex: bend flu/fluct/flux: flow fort: brave, strong, chance frac/frag: break frat: brother func: perform, discharge gam: marriage gen: birth, class, descent, race, generation geo: Earth gloss/glot: language, tongue grad/gress: step graph/gram: write, draw, record grat: pleasing grav/griev: serious, heavy, harmful greg: flock, herd gyn: woman helio: sun hemo: blood herb: vegetation hetero: different, mixed, unlike homo: same, alike hom/homo: man, humanity hydr/hydra/hydro: water hypo: beneath, under, lower ig/il/im/in/ir: not, without, causative prefix in: in, on, upon, not, intensive prefix inter: among, between, within, mutual intra/intro: into, inward, within ja/jact/ject: throw, fling jur/jus/jud: swear, law, judge, just let/leg/lig: read, choose leg: law lev: light lex: word liber: free librar/libra: book liter: letter lo/log/loqu: word, speak, talk lu/lum/lus: light lud: play, game macro: large, long magn: great mal: bad man: hand mand: order mania: obsession mar/mari: sea mater/matri: mother mega: great, large meta: change meter/metr: measure micro: small min: small mis: hatred, bad, improper, wrong miss/mit: move, send mob/mot/mov: move mono: one, single mon/monit: warn mori/mort: death morph: form, shape multi: many mut: change nas/nat: birth, be from, spring forth nav: ship nec/nic/noc/nox: kill, death, harm necro: dead, corpse nego: no neo: new, recent neuro: nerve neut/neutr: not, either noct/nox: night nom/nomen/nym: name non: not nov: new num: number ob/oc/of/op: against olig: few, little omni: all, every oper: work opti/opto: eye, vision ortho: straight, correct os/oss/ost/osteo: bone pal/paleo: ancient pac: peace pan: all, every par: equal para: beyond, related, alongside pas/path: feeling, disease, suffering pater/patr: father ped: child ped/pod: foot pel/puls: drive, urge per: through completely peri: around, near pet: seek, request, assail phil: love, fondness, preference phobos: fear phon: sound, voice phos/phot: light phys/physio: nature pict: paint plac: please poli: city, state, citizen poly: many pon/pos: put, place popul: people port: carry, gate post: after, behind pre: before, earlier prehend/prehens: seize, grasp prim: before, first pro: in favor of proto: first, earliest pseudo: false psych: mind pub: public punct: point, prick put/putat: think, calculate quer/ques/quir/quis: ask, seek re: bacck again, repeat rect: straight rect/reg/regn: rule, govern retro: backward rid/ris: laugh rog/rogat: ask sacr/sanct: sacred, holy sci: know scope: examine, observe, watch scrib/scrip: write se: away, apart sec/sect/segm: cut secu/sequ: follow semi: half, partly sens/sent: feel, be aware sol: sun solv/solu: free, loosen, dissolve somn: sleep soph: wise, skillful, shrewd spec/spect/spic: see, look at spir: breath, energy, animation stas/stat: stand, being in a place, position strict/string: tight, drawn together struct: build sub/suc/suf/sug/sup/sus: below, less, under super/sur: over, above syl/sym/syn/sys: together, with tact/tang: touch tele: distance, far tempor: time ten/tain: hold tend/tens/tent: stretch, strive term: end, limit terr: land, the Earth terti: third the/thei/theo: god therap: to attend, treat therm/thermo: warm, hot tom/tome/tomy: cut, section top/topo: place, region tors/tort/torqu: twist, turn tract: drag, pull tran/trans: across, through trem/tremu: tremble, shake turb: spinning, confusion, disturbance type: type ultra: beyond, excessive, on the other side of un: not, reverse, undo, remove, intensive prefix uni: one urb: city us/ut: use, useful vac/vaca/vacu: empty veh/vect: carry ven/vent: come ver/verac/veri: true verb: word vers/vert: turn, change via: way, road vict/vinc/vanq: conquer vid/vis: see, look vir: man vit: life viv/viva: alive, lively, animated voc/voke: call vol/voli: wish, choice volv/volu: roll, turn vor/vora: devour, greedy xen/xeno: stranger, foreigner zo/zoo: animal 300 High Frequency Prefixes/Word Roots

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Description
This is a list of prefixes and their meanings. Prefixes are especially useful to be familiar with, because these can help you learn a large amount of words in a short time. If you recognize the prefix and know it's meaning; and you see it with a work you already know, you are more likely to guess it's meaning based on the context you read it in. I highly recommend these prefixes to people in the medical/healthcare profession; science and technical fields; among others. knowing the roots of the words helps you advance your vocabulary skills rapidly, especially in situations where you're uncertain this can help you guess the meaning of new words based on the prefix.

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John Paul Hornbeck
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