Roots

NUMBERS

Kilo, mill: thousand.  A kiloliter is 1000 liters.  A millennium is 1000 years.

Milli:  thousandth.  A milliwatt is one-thousandth of a watt.

Mega: million.  A megabyte holds a million bytes.

Micro: millionth.  A microvolt is a millionth of a volt.

Giga: billion.  A gigabyte holds one billion bytes of information.

Nano:  billionth.  One second divided by a billion equals a nanosecond.

Tera:  trillion.  A teraflop is equal to one trillion flops in computer jargon.

Pico:  trillionth.  A picogram is one trillionth of a gram.

Femto:  quadrillionth. A femtosecond is one quadrillionth of a second.

Mono:  one.  For a while in the ‘60’s, one piece swimsuits were called monokinis.

Uni:  one.  A unicycle has one wheel.

Bi:  two.  A bilateral trade agreement affects two countries.

Tri:  three.  Dick Vitale used to call a successful three point shot in basketball a trifecta.

Quad:  four.  Your quadriceps are muscles that have four heads or points of origin; the large muscle at the front of the thigh.

Quint:  five.  A family with quintuplets has five children born at the same time like twins only 5 of them.

Pent:  five.  A pentagon has 5 sides.

Hex:  six:  Hexagons have six sides.

Hept:  seven.  A heptagon has seven sides.

Sept:  seven.  Why isn’t September the 7th month?  It used to be before July & August were added to the calendar.

Oct: eight.  The stop sign is an octagon.

Non: nine.  A nonagenarian is someone in his 90’s.

Dec:  ten.  The decimal system is based on units of ten.  A decade is 10 years.

ambu=walk, move:  In a hospital, patients are either bedridden (they can’t move) or ambulatory.

andro=man:  Commander Data on Star Trek:  The Next Generation is an android; he’s a robot that’s shaped like a man.

anthro=human, mankind:  Anthropology is the study of humans.  A misanthrope hates humans.

bella,belli=war:  If you’re belligerent, you’re ready to fight or downright hostile.

carn=flesh:  Carnivores eat flesh (meat).

clam, claim=shout:  To proclaim is is to shout something.

clin-lean, bend:  When you decline something, you lean away from it or refuse it.

clud, clus, claus=to close, shut:  A recluse is a hermit, someone who shuts himself away from the world.

cred=trust, belief:  Something incredible is unbelievable.

demo=people:  Democracy is rule by the people.  An epidemic spreads rapidly among people.

dog, dox=thought, ideas:  A paradox is an idea or statement that seems contradictory but may be true.

duc, duct=to lead, pull:  A duct is a tube through which gas or liquid moves.  An aqueduct is a pipe made to lead water from a distant source.

ev=time, age:  A medieval costume party requires that everyone come dressed as a character from the Middle Ages.

fac=to do or make:  Something facile is easy to do.  A facile job is easy.

fiss=break, part:  A fissure is a break in the earth’s surface.  Nuclear fission occurs wheen the nucleus is broken.

flict=strike:  You inflict a blow when you strike someone.  An affliction is pain or suffering, a strike to your health.

fort=strength:  To fortify something is to strengthen it.

fract, frag, frai=break:  If you fracture your leg, you break it.  A sentence fragment is a broken or incomplete sentence.

gnos=knowledge:  A doctor shows his or her knowledge by making a diagnosis or a prognosis.  

grad, gress=to go:  Progress is to go forward.  Regress is to go backward.

greg=group, herd:  A congregation is a group or herd of people.  

gyn=woman:  A misogynist is a person who hates women.  

her, hes=to stick:  Adhesive tape sticks to your leg, resulting in acute pain when you yank it off with most of your leg hair.

jac, ject=to throw:  To project your voice in a theater is to throw it way back to the last row of seats.  The trajectory of a ball is the curved path it takes after being thrown.

loq, log, loc, lix=speech, talk:  Someone loquacious talks a lot.  A dialogue is talk or conversation between two people.

Luc, lum, lus-light, clear:  Something luminous is shiny and full of light.  Lustrous hair reflects the light and is sleek and glossy.

meta=change, transformation:  A metamorphosis is a change of shape.  Metastasis is a spread of disease.

morph=shape:  Something amorphous is without shape.  Morphology is the study of shape.

mut=change:  Something immutable is not changeable or remains the same.

narco=sleep:  A narcotic puts you to sleep.  If you have narcolepsy, you have a frequent and uncontrollable desire for sleep.

Omni-all:  An omnipotent person is all-powerful.  An omniscient person knows all.\