Root (linguistics) facts for kids

A root is the most basic part of a word. Think of it like the main building block or the core of a word. It's the part that gives the word its main meaning. You can't break a root down into smaller pieces that still have meaning.

Sometimes, a root is a whole word by itself, like "help" in "unhelpfully." When a root is a complete word, it's often called a base word. This base word is usually what you'd find at the beginning of a dictionary definition, and many other words can be built from it, forming a "word family."

What are Affixes?

Words often have extra bits added to them called affixes. These are small parts that attach to the root.

• Prefixes come before the root (like "un-" in "unhelpfully").
• Suffixes come after the root (like "-fully" in "unhelpfully" or "-tion" in "reaction").

When you take away all the prefixes and suffixes, what's left is usually the root!

Examples of Word Roots

Let's look at some examples where the root is in bold:

• Unhelpfully: Here, the root is help. The "un-" is a prefix, and "-fully" is a suffix.
• Reaction: The root is act. "Re-" is a prefix, and "-ion" is a suffix.
• Receive: In this word, ceive is the root. "Re-" is a prefix.
• Science: This root, sci, is very old! It comes from an ancient language family called Indo-European. The original root was something like "scei," which meant "to cut" or "to split." Over time, as languages changed, this root came into Latin and then into English, giving us words like "science" (which means "knowledge," like cutting through information to understand it).

Why are Roots Important?

Understanding word roots can help you guess the meaning of new words you've never seen before. If you know the meaning of a common root, you can often figure out what a longer, more complex word means, even with prefixes and suffixes added. It's like having a secret code to unlock word meanings!

Images for kids

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  A friendly robot, representing how words are built from parts.