Below are templates on how to effectively build your vocabulary, not through mere memorization of the over 500,000 words in the English language, but through becoming acquainted with the roots, prefixes, and suffixes of words. When we break the term down, however, we can start to see what it means before looking it up. Anthropo is borrowed from the Greek ánthrôpos. It means “human.” A word that includes the root anthropo is “anthropology.” Logy has an interesting history. Random House tells me the suffix is “a combining form used in the names of sciences or bodies of knowledge.” Greek and Latin in origin, the suffix is commonly found. Knowing what these two terms mean tells me that “anthropology” is merely the study of humans. Take, for example, the entry anthropomorphic which once may have seemed difficult at first. Morph simply means to have a specific shape or form. Thus the meaning of the entire word: “to have human characteristics.” If you create a habit of doing five words a week, I assure you that your vocabulary will vastly expand in a short time span and will improve your writing, as you will also learn the roles that each word can play in a sentence (e.g. adjective, verb, noun). Just remember to have fun. And remember this work is not optional, counting for 10 percent of your final grade.
DIRECTIONS
- Copy the sentence from which you found the word you do not know.
- Write the dictionary’s definition and then define the entry in your own words and note the part of speech the entry plays in the sentence (it is a noun, verb, adjective?).
- Find the root, prefix, or suffix.
- Find words that use the same roots (if you cannot find the root just put NA for not applicable).
- Finally, create your own sentence with the word.
EXAMPLES
- Sentence: “the secretary of state would only adumbrate his ideas for bringing peace to Bosnia.”
Definition: to give a sketchy outline or disclose in part. To hint at or foretell.
My words: to be vague or maybe even ambiguous but to not be clear
Root: UMBR/ “Shadow” Verb
Words with same root: umber, umbrage, penumbra
My sentence: I always adumbrate my thesis in my rough drafts, causing constant changes along the road to a final draft.
- Sentence: “all the children’s bellies were distended, undoubtedly because of inadequate nutrition or parasites.”
Definition: Stretched or bulging out in all directions; swelled.
My words: swollen in a not that great way
Root: Ten/Tenu – “thin” Adj
Words from same root: tenous, extenuating, attenuating
My sentence: European aesthetics distends throughout Western culture, making peoples of non-white ancestry hate the features of their bodies.
- Sentence: “while working for the CIA he was lured into becoming a double agent, and it seems he paid a high price for his perfidy.
Definition: Faithlessness, disloyalty, or treachery. Noun
My words: a deceitful or traitorous act
Root: FID/ “faith” or “trust”
Words with the Same Root: fiduciary, diffident, affidavit
My sentence: She was discouraged by the amount of perfidy in the business world.
- Sentence: “Colonials tried to grant Algerian women a traitorous agency, affecting to rescue them from the sadistic thrall of Algerian men.”
Definition: The state of being under someone’s power. Noun
My words: the condition of one person totally controlled by another person
Root: NA
Words with same root: NA
My sentence: Under the thrall of globalization, the poor of Caribbean nations confront their socio-economic immobility.
- Sentence: “The old Eastern European bagel has gone through an acculturation in America . . .”
Definition: Modification of the culture of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. Noun
My words: What emotional, intellectual, behavioral changes a group or person undergoes in a new environment
Root: Cult/ “care”
Words with same root: subculture, horticulture
My sentence: Many immigrants in the U.S. have to acculturate in order to survive and avoid discrimination.
