Study guides › Level 7 · Roots & Origins

Greek and Latin prefixes

Level 7 · Word Parts · for questions like “Which word means ‘wishing harm to others’?”

💡 The idea

A prefix sits at the start of a word and changes its meaning. Knowing a few prefixes lets you spot the right word among look-alikes.

⚡ Handy ones

🪜 The steps

1. Find the key idea in the meaning: harm, around, many.
2. Match it to a prefix.
3. Pick the word that really starts with that prefix, not just the same letters.

⚠️ Watch out

• Look-alikes: “mallet” and “mellow” start like mal- but aren’t about bad things. “Circus” is round, but it isn’t a distance.

🎯 Try these

1. Which word means “a shape with many sides”? polish · polygon · pollen
2. Which word means “half of a circle”? semicircle · seminar · sentence

Answers: 1) polygon 2) semicircle

This guide is also in the 10WordsQ app: tap “📖 Study guide” after a question.