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Word roots

Chronophobia, ichthyologist, frugivore: work out what a word must mean from its Greek and Latin roots — including words nobody has ever used.

  • Words
  • Untimed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

English builds many words from a stem and an ending: hydro- (water) and -phobia (fear) make hydrophobia, fear of water. Learn the roots and you can read words you have never met.

Levels go from what a root means (shown with words that carry it), to what a two-root word would mean, to which word would mean a given thing. Many of the words are invented on purpose — dendrophile, pyrology — so the meaning can only be derived, not remembered. Past those, the clock tightens.

The roots and their sources were written for this game from standard etymologies, and folk etymologies are left out. A word's literal meaning by its roots is what is asked; a real word may have drifted from it. The wrong options come from other roots: fear for love, study for description, another stem on the same ending.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This makes reading the meaning of words from their Greek and Latin roots quicker and surer. It claims nothing wider.

Learn

How to get better at word roots: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Split the word into stem and ending: chrono|phobia, frugi|vore. Greek stems here end in -o, Latin ones mostly in -i.
  2. Read the ending first. It gives the frame: “fear of …”, “the study of …”, “an animal that eats …”.
  3. Put the stem’s meaning into the frame: chrono- is time, so chronophobia is fear of time.
  4. For “Which word would mean it”, go the other way: the frame names the ending, the thing names the stem; join them.
  5. Answer by the roots, even when the word is invented or a real word has drifted from its roots.

Techniques and tricks

  • Endings are frames

    Learn the ten endings as fill-in-the-blank phrases, and every word becomes one sum: stem into frame.

    e.g. -phobia fear of; -phile a lover of; -logy the study of; -graphy a written description of; -meter a device for measuring; -scope an instrument for looking at; -cracy rule by; -vore an animal that eats; -cide a substance that kills; -culture the farming of.

  • Greek with Greek, Latin with Latin

    Stems here join only endings of their own language. -vore, -cide and -culture are Latin, so the stem before them is Latin too; -logy, -phobia and the rest are Greek.

    e.g. piscivore: pisci- (Latin, fish) + -vore — an animal that eats fish. ichthyology: ichthyo- (Greek, fish) + -logy.

  • Learn twin stems in pairs

    Several things have a Greek stem and a Latin one. Learn them together, and one word gives you two.

    e.g. water: hydro-, aqua-. fish: ichthyo-, pisci-. trees: dendro-, arbori-. insects: entomo-, insecti-.

  • Anchor each root to a word you know

    Tie every root to one everyday word that carries it; the root’s meaning comes back with the word.

    e.g. helio- helium (the sun), litho- monolith (stone), necro- necropolis (the dead), api- apiary (bees).

  • Keep the classic pairs apart

    Some endings are mixed up so often that the game offers one for the other. Fix each pair with a contrast.

    e.g. -phobia fears, -phile loves. -logy studies, -graphy describes in writing. -meter measures, -scope looks. -vore eats, -cide kills.

As the levels climb

  • You start with what single roots mean, each shown with two words that carry it — omni-, as in omnipresent and omnivore.
  • Next comes what a two-root word would mean, many of them invented, such as dendrophile; then the clock tightens to 93%; then which word would mean a given phrase.
  • After that the clock closes a little every level — 86%, 80%, 75% and on — until it stops at half the time. The roots stay the same; only speed is left to build.
  • Each kind of question has its own base time: 15 seconds for a root, 20 to read a word, 25 to build one, before the squeeze.

Traps to avoid

  • Fear for love, study for description. For chronophobia, “a lover of time” is offered; for pyrology, “a written description of fire”. Check the ending against its pair.
  • The right ending on the wrong stem. For chronophobia, offers such as “fear of water” use another stem. Read the stem too, not just the familiar ending.
  • The right stem with the wrong ending. For “the study of fire”, pyrography or pyrophobia can sit beside pyrology. The stem matching proves nothing; check the ending.
  • The modern meaning. Bibliography today means a list of books, but by its roots it is “a written description of books” — and the roots are what is asked.

How to practise

  • Under “Kinds of question”, keep only “What a root means” until the roots come instantly; then add “What a word would mean”, then “Which word would mean it”.
  • Raise “Options shown” towards 8 to meet the near endings and near stems at once.
  • After each answer, read the working: it gives the source word for each root and real words that carry it. Pick one as your anchor.

Levels

It is untimed unless you turn the clock on. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

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