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ROOT FORMS OF WORDS

The process of making new words from a base or root from (or the most basic form of a word, without anything attached to it, which you will find in a dictionary) is known as word formation, and understanding how this works will help us build our vocabulary by deriving many new words according to our needs.
Many words that we use come from a root word. If we disconnect prefixes and suffixes, the root can be identified. A little digging will uncover just what the root word really means. For example, in a word such as 'bicycle', the root what is 'cycle'.
Since English is a derivational language, it has borrowed many words from other languages especially from Greek and Latin roots. (A 'root' is a form of a word from which other words are derived using affixes.) For example, pater (or patr) is a Latin word which means 'father'. It serves as root for English words such as 'patriarch', 'patrimony', 'patron', etc.

DETERMINING A ROOT WORD 
Words can even have two root words, such as schoolhouse. There are many root words that are frequently used as parts of common words. Look at the following roots and example words using these roots:

  • aquamarine: 'aqua' means water. a
  • audible: 'audio' means sound are hearing. 
  • connect: 'con' means with.
  • dictation: 'dict' means say.
  • geography: 'geo' means earth.
  • hydrophobia: 'hydra' means water.
  • solar: 'sol' means sun.
  • thermometer: 'therm' means heat. 
Some Greek and Latin Root Words
It is possible to make out the meanings of words if we know the meanings of root words.
However, there are exceptions to this also. For example, in the word 'apology', the root word 'logy' is the study of something, and 'apo' is 'from' or 'away from'. But the meaning of 'apology' is to feel sorry about something. Thus knowing the meaning of the roots will not always help in arriving at the meanings of words. 
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