From the course: Test Prep: GRE

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Use word roots to build vocabulary

Use word roots to build vocabulary

From the course: Test Prep: GRE

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Use word roots to build vocabulary

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- [Voiceover] So one skill you can develop to help with fill-in-the-blank questions on the GRE is the ability to guess at the definition of a word based on its parts. So in this video I'll talk about ways to learn word roots, prefixes, and suffixes. So many dictionaries will include the etymology of a word or its origins. So, for example, try looking up the etymology of the word "nostalgia". Nostalgia means remembering the past sort of with both pleasure and sadness. And that word, nostalgia, is a combination of the Greek root "nostos", which means to return home and the Latin "algia", which means pain. So the combination of these root meanings forms something very like the definition of the word. So the next time you see a word with a root that you know, you may be able to guess its meaning. For example, if you then saw the word, "neuralgia", you might be able to guess that it meant nerve pain if you knew that "neur" meant nerve and you remember that "algia" had something to do with…

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