Word Parts: Prefixes, Roots, & Suffixes
Prefix
Root
Suffix
New word
non-
conform
-ist
nonconformist
Suppose that you come across the following sentence in a literature textbook.
Ralph Waldo Emerson led a movement of nonconformist thinkers.
If you did not know the meaning of nonconformist, how could you determine it? An easy and fast
alternative to looking in the dictionary is to break the word into parts and analyze the meaning of each
part. Many words in the English language are made up of word parts called prefixes, roots, and
suffixes. These word parts have specific meanings that, when added together, can help you determine
the meaning of the word as a whole.
MEANING not + go along + one who does = someone who does not
something go along with others
Knowing the meanings of the most common word parts gives you the building blocks for hundreds of
words in the English language. Before you use word parts there are a few things you need to know.
1. In most cases, a word is built upon at least one root.
2. Words can have more than one prefix, root, or suffix.
a. Words can be made up of two or more roots (geo/logy).
b. Some words have two prefixes (in/sub/ordination).
c. Some words have two suffixes (beauti/ful/ly).
3. Words do not always have a prefix and a suffix.
a. Some words have neither a prefix nor a suffix (read).
b. Others have a suffix but no prefix (reading/ing).
c. Others have a prefix but no suffix (pre/read).
4. The spelling of roots may change as they are combined with suffixes.
5. Different prefixes, roots, or suffixes may have the same meaning.
For example, the prefixes bi-, di-, and duo- all mean “two.”
6. Sometimes you may identify a group of letters as a prefix or root but find that it does not
carry the meaning of that prefix or root.
For example, the letters mis in missile are part of the root and are not the prefix mis-, which
means “wrong; bad.”
