Word Formation — Prefixes, Suffixes and Roots That Decode Words You Have Never Seen

You cannot memorise the English dictionary, and no paper expects you to. What papers quietly expect is that you can take a word apart.

Almost every long English word is built from three pieces: a prefix at the front, a root in the middle, and a suffix at the end. The root carries the meaning. The prefix bends that meaning — usually reversing it, or placing it in time or space. The suffix decides the word's job in the sentence: noun, verb, adjective or adverb.

Take *misanthrope*. Mis- is hatred and anthrop is mankind, so a misanthrope hates mankind. You never had to learn the word; you only had to split it.

Learning sixty prefixes, suffixes and roots does more for your score than learning six hundred words, because those sixty keep recombining into new ones. This is the highest-return page in English preparation.

1. Choose the correct one-word substitution for 'one who loves books':

2. Which negative prefix correctly forms the opposite of the word 'regular'?

3. The root 'anthropo', as in anthropology and misanthrope, means:

4. Which suffix converts the adjective 'kind' into a noun?

5. The suffix '-cide', as in homicide and pesticide, refers to:

6. 'Oligarchy' means a government run by:

7. Which prefix carries the meaning 'across', as in transport and translate?

8. In which of the following words does the prefix mean 'before'?