F
or example, in this chapter, you will be introduced to the root phobe, which means fear. You can then
guess that any word that contains this root has to do with the fear of something. For instance, claus-
trophobia means an abnormal fear of small spaces.
CHAPTER
Vocabulary List 4:
More Roots
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Just as many people in our culture have their roots in other countries,
roots of English words, too, come from other languages. The words of
the English language have been borrowed from other languages over
the course of history. The history of a word is called its etymology. Many
of the roots in Chapter 6 come from Greek and Latin languages. We
have included 20 more words with important roots in this chapter
because the more roots and origins you are familiar with, the more you
will be able to recognize related words.
7
73

–
VOCABULARY LIST 4: MORE ROOTS
–
75
Across
1 average
6 able to be broken down by
living things
8 payment
9 to credit
10 relating to
13 hindrance

Vocabulary List 4: More Roots
agoraphobic
assimilate
attribute
benevolent
biodegradable
conspicious
contradiction
credence
evident
gregarious
impediment
incisive
inference
mediocre
philanthropy
precedent
recapitulate
remittance
tangential
urbane

goraphobic (a·ə·rə·fo¯ ·bik)
root: phobe means fear
(adj.)
fear of open or public spaces
My neighbor is , so I do his grocery
shopping for him.
assimilate (əs·sim·ə·la¯t)
root: simul means copy

root: contra means against, dict means say
(noun)
the act or state of disagreeing
My teacher made a direct to her earlier
instructions by allowing us to turn in a
handwritten report.
credence (kre¯ ·dəns)
root: cred means believe
(noun)
belief, believability
Marty gave to the gossip because it came
from a reliable source.
evident (ev·i·dent)
root: vid means see
(adj.)
obvious
The effects of the drought will be to
anyone who comes to visit the area.
gregarious (re·air·e¯ ·əs)
root: greg means crowd
(adj.)
sociable
People want to be around Eva because of her
nature.
impediment (im·ped·ə·mənt)
root:
ped, pod means foot, ped means child
(noun)
a barrier or hindrance
I had to work with a therapist to overcome my