Greek and Latin Roots for Word Meaning
Use knowledge of Greek and Latin affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and roots as clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, building a bank of common roots and their meanings
Teaching approaches
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1 approach
If your child comes across an unfamiliar word containing a Greek or Latin root they recognise — like "port" in "transport" or "bio" in "biology" — can they use that to work out the meaning?
Use knowledge of Greek and Latin affixes (prefixes and suffixes) and roots as clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, building a bank of common roots and their meanings
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Check understanding
- Identify common Greek and Latin roots in unfamiliar words and use root meaning to infer word meaning, e.g. 'aqua' (water) in aquarium/aquatic, 'dict' (say) in predict/dictionary
- Break a multi-morpheme word into prefix + root + suffix to determine meaning, e.g. un- (not) + believe + -able = not able to be believed
- Use knowledge of Greek-origin prefixes (auto-, tele-, micro-) and Latin-origin prefixes (inter-, trans-, sub-) to decode and define unfamiliar vocabulary in context
“If your child comes across an unfamiliar word containing a Greek or Latin root they recognise — like "port" in "transport" or "bio" in "biology" — can they use that to work out the meaning?”
Curriculum record
- Type
- Conceptual
- Subject
- English
- Domain
- Vocabulary
- Age range
- Ages 9–11
Standards