Latin & Greek Stems

2023-2024

Year 5

  • Print out the week’s flash card set. Bonus points if you play the concentration/memory game and complete the crossword.

  • Cut the flash cards out

  • Tape or glue them to an index card.

    In class we’ll make the front of the card together. (Note: Sets 1-3 are mostly review for veteran Farm Schoolers)

60% of English words have a Latin or Greek root, prefix or suffix hiding in them.

Knowing common Latin and Greek roots, prefixes or suffixes, collectively called stems, helps you unlock the meaning of complicated English vocabulary as well as words in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French. This is especially true of English science vocabulary. Most of the science stems we’ll learn are roots. But we’ll also learn common prefixes and suffixes.

Weeks 1-5 we’ll learn about 50 stems A-Z in alphabetical order. We’ll also add stems from our science vocabulary to that group as we go along.

https://www.etymonline.com is a great source for looking up word origins.

If you want a list of all 50+ stems, look below at Spring Semester of YEAR 4.

Spring Semester 2023 (Year 4)

The 1/2 Semester Tuesday class will do fewer of these stems

Preview of coming stems. Stem* indicates a repeated stem from fall

Format: stem/alternate spelling of the stem - definition (words in English which use this stem)

  1. porus - opening (porous, porosity)

  2. satur - full or over flowing (saturated, sated)

  3. aqua - water (aquaduct, aquifer, aquitard, aquarium, aquatic)

  4. aster/astro - star (aster, asterisk, asteroid, astronomy)

  5. a/an - not or without (apathy, abiotic, anarchy)

  6. auto- self (autograph, automatic, automobile)

  7. bio*- life (biography, biotic, antibiotic)

  8. bi/di* - two (biped, biplane, bisect, bilingual, biweekly)

  9. biblio - book (bibliography, bibliophile, bible)

  10. cent - 100 (century, centennial, percent, centenarian)

  11. circum - around (circumscribe, circumference, circumvent)

  12. chron- time (chronic, chronology, synchronize)

  13. demo - people or citizens (democracy, epidemic)

  14. dict - speak, say, word (dictate, dictator, dictionary, contradict, verdict, predict, benediction)

  15. dec - ten or tenth (decade, decimal, decathalon)

  16. e/ex* -out or from (eject, erupt, emigrate, emancipate, exit, expel, exclaim)

  17. equ - equal (equal, equilibrium, equator)

  18. fix - fasten or attach (fixture, prefix, suffix fixate)

  19. flor - flower (flora, Florida, floriferous)

  20. fid - faith (fidelity, infidelity, confide)

  21. geo* - earth (geology, geographer, geometry)

  22. graph* - write/draw (biography, autograph, telegraph)

  23. gon* - angle (polygon, octagon)

  24. hydr* - water (hydrant, hydrosphere, dehydrate)

  25. hyper- excessive, over or beyond (hyper active, hypersonic, hypertension)

  26. homo/homi - same (homogeneous, homicide, homonym)

  27. il/in/ir/ig - not or without (illegal, ignorant, infinite, incorruptible, irregular)

  28. inter- between or among (internet, interstate, interrupt, intersect)

  29. jur- law (jury, juror, justice)

  30. ject - to throw (eject, inject, interject, object, reject)

  31. junct- join, untie, connect (junction, conjunction, juncture)

  32. less - without (careless, hopeless, fearless)

  33. liber - free (liberty, liberate,

  34. leg- law (legal, illegal, legislature

  35. mater- mother (maternal, maternity, matriarch, matrimony)

  36. magni- great, large (magnify, magnificent, magnate, Magna Carta

  37. nat - birth, born (native, prenatal, naturalize)

  38. ology - study of (geology, biology)

  39. pro - forward, in place of (proceed, pronoun, propel)

  40. pre - before -(predict, precaution, prejudice)

  41. quadr - four (quadruped, quadrilateral)

  42. rupt - break or burst (abrupt, erupt, disrupt, interrupt)

  43. re- again, back (repay, reelect, reconstruct)

  44. scrib/pt - write (scribble, scribe, scripture, postscript, prescription)

  45. sub - down, below (submerge, subway, submarine, subduct)

  46. son- sound (sonic, sonar, unison)

  47. trans - across, change (transport, transmit, transform, translate)

  48. tele- distant (television, telephone, telecommunication, telpathy)

  49. tempo - time (temporary, contemporary)

  50. un - not, opposite (unusual, unemployed, unpack, uncover)

  51. uni/unum - one (unilateral, united, unify

  52. urb/urbis - city (urban, suburban)

  53. vis/vid - see (vision, visit, visible, video, evidence)

  54. viv/vit - live (revive, survive, vivid, vital, viviparous)

  55. verb - word (verbal, verbatim)

  56. ver - true (verify, verdict)

  57. vers/t - turn (revert, subvert, reverse, divert, adversity, advertise)

  58. zo- animal (zoo, protozoan, zoology)

Stems can be roots, prefixes or suffixes. Most of the science stems we’ll learn are roots. But we’ll also learn common prefixes and suffixes.

I recommend new students starting in spring or half-way through a semester make their own flash cards for the previous (fall) semester so they can fully participate in our stems games! Also, if you are a slower or younger writer you may want to print out the basic spring list so you can work on making your flashcards at home. Note: the spring list does NOT contain our science stems yet, but it does have the stems we’re learning in alphabetical order. Science stems will be added as we go along.

Latin and Greek stems are the keys to unlocking academic English words, as well as words in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French. Once you know Latin and Greek stems you can often figure out the meaning of other academic words, especially scientific terms, understand their origins, and thus remember them more easily.

Stems Index Format

FRONT - STEM and a DRAWING that suggests the meaning of the stem (a mnemonic device).

BACK - DEFINITION and ENGLISH WORDS which have that stem in them. For example, if the stem is geo, the front of the card would have “geo” and a picture of the earth since the definition of the stem is earth. On the back side of the card, we write the definition: earth, and list geology, geography, geometry (math that was developed to measure the earth).

https://www.etymonline.com is a great source for looking up word origins.

2022-2023 Year 4

2022-2023 Fall Semester of Year 4

  1. exo- outer

  2. sphere- globe

  3. bio- life

  4. geo- earth

  5. hydr- water

  6. atmo-vapor

  7. aero- air

  8. tropo-change

  9. strato-layers

  10. meso -middle

  11. therm - heat

  12. graph- write

  13. gon - angle

  14. hyper - over or beyond

  15. hypo-below

  16. hom-same or like

  17. hetero- other or different

  18. il, ir, im, in, ig - not

  19. inter - between

  20. medius - middle

  21. con - together with

  22. di - two or away/asunder

  23. pyro - fire

  24. clast- fragment

2019-2020 Year 2

Week 10 Stems

  1. ecto/exo = outside, exit, ectothermic, exhale

  2. therm = heat, ectothermic, thermometer

  3. endo = inside, endospore, endothermic

  4. bi = two, binary, bicycle, biennial, bifurcate

  5. de = opposite of, decomposition, destruction

  6. com/cum = with/together, decomposition, community, cooperate

  7. pauser = to lay down, pause, decomposition, compose

  8. mikros= small, microbiology

  9. baktron = rod, bacilli, bacteria

  10. spiralis = twisting, spiral, spirilla

  11. cocci = berry/seed, sterptococci, staphylococci,

  12. sitos = grain, parasite (one who lives at the expense of another— eats beside at the table of another)

  13. hospitem = guest/stranger, host, hospitable, hospital

  14. nodus = knot, nodules

  15. rumen = throat, ruminant

  16. sapros = putrid, saprophyte (organism that gets energy from decomposing dead organisms)

  17. phyto = plant, saprophyte, phytoplankton, phytoestrogen

  18. culus/cle = diminutive like “ito” in Spanish. molecule, animalcules (whate Anton Leeuwenhoek called the first tiny organisms he saw under a microscope)

  19. skopos = aim/watcher, microscope, telescope

  20. osteon= bone,

Week 6 Stems

  1. dis = not - disagree, dystopia

  2. in = not - infrequent, inappropriate

  3. non = not - nonfat, nonresponsive

  4. un = not - unhappy, untrue

  5. metron = measure - meter, geometry, optometry (opsis- sight, measurement of eyesight), diameter

  6. dia = through/across - diameter

  7. tropos = turning - phototropic (photo-light, turning toward the light as plants do) tropics of cancer and Tropic of Cancercorn ( at 23 degrees latitude these are the farthest latitudes from the equator on which the sun shines straight down. At these latitude lines the sun seems to TURN and go back the other way, the turning time is called the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and the winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere

Week 3 Stems

  1. Auto = self- autotroph (organism that feeds itself)

  2. Troph = nourishment/food – heterotroph, autotroph

  3. Photo = light- phototroph, photosynthesis, photograph

  4. Chemo = chemical -chemoautotroph, chemotherapy

  5. Syn/sym = together- symphony, symbiotic

  6. Hetero = other- heterotroph, heterozygous

  7. Para = beside- parallel, parasite

Week 2 Stems

Stem = meaning - words in English which have this stem.

  1. Eco= house - ecology (from Greek oikos "house, dwelling place, habitation"

  2. Logy = study of - biology, ecology, physiology, geology

  3. Bio =  life -  biology, antibiotic

  4. A = no -  abiotic, apathy, (this is a common prefix)

  5. Inter = between - interlude interdependent, interstellar

  6. Populus = people - population

  7. praeda = plundera- prey & predator

  8. -tion = act or state - evaporation, adaptation, nitrification (this is a common suffix)