Grammar and Language Workbook

10. Margarita relinquished her chairmanship since she no longer had the time to devote to the
committee.
11. Juan experienced a paucity of ideas for the membership drive. Likewise, we couldn’t think of
any either.
12. Because of the heavy traffic fine, Harley was impecunious; consequently he had to wait until
payday to purchase the new CD.
13. The eight-bit computer has become obsolete; in other words, it is generally no longer used.
14. Eduardo reneges under criticism in the same way that Teresa fails to keep her promises.
15. The extra review session was superfluous since everyone had already passed the test. 
Name ___________________________________________________ Class _________ Date ____________________
292 
Grammar and Language Workbook, Grade 12
Copyright © by Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Vocabulary and
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Lesson 97
Building Vocabulary: Word Roots
The main part of a word is called its 
root
. When the root is a complete word, it is called a
base word
. The root can suggest the basic meaning of a word. Roots are often combined
with a 
prefix 
(a part preceding the root), a 
suffix 
(a part following the root), or another
root. These parts can change the direction of a word’s meaning. Here is a list of some
common roots.
ROOTS
MEANINGS
ROOTS
MEANINGS
aqua, aqui
water
junct
join
astr, astro
star
jur, jus
law
biblio
book
logy, log
word, thought, speech
bio
life
metr
meter, measure
chron
time
nym
name
clin
bend, lean
op, oper
work
cogn
know
patho
path, suffering
crypt
hidden, secret
ped
foot, child
culp
fault, blame
psych
soul, mind
fin
end, limit
reg, rig
rule, straight
fix
fasten
scop
examine, instrument
gen
birth, kind 
spect
sight
graph, gram
write, writing
terra
earth
jac, ject
throw, cast, hurl
verb
word
jud
judge
vid, vis
see
 Exercise 1