Stems

A comprehensive list of Latin and Greek roots (what we are calling “stems” here) is located at this Michigan State University web site and this Wikipedia article.

In each of the examples below, the bold and the italics represent individual stems. Thus “bilateral” means

• bi, which means “two,” and
• lat, which means “side.”

In the event of a word having more than two stems, the third stem will be underlined.

Stems List 31

1. equivocate: hedge; be indecisive
2. superfluous: unnecessary
3. bilateral: two sided
4. unilateral: one sided
5. circumspect: cautious
6. commensurate: of like measure
7. malevolence: evil
8. neophyte: beginner
9. misanthropist: people-hater
10. bellicose: warlike; very aggressive
11. anthropomorphic: man-shaped
12. captious: fault finding
13. neologism: new word
14. malediction: a curse
15. incredulous: not believing
16. omniscient: all knowing
17. monomania: obsession about one thing
18. specious: false
19. excoriate: verbally flog
20. prototype: first model
21. benediction: blessing
22. amorphous: shapeless
23. preponderance: bulk
24. magnanimous: generous and understanding and tolerant

Stems List 32

1. putative
   put – think
2. altercation
   alter – other
   tion – act or state (noun)
3. contravene
   contra – against
   ven – come
4. confluence
   con – together
   flu – flow
5. circumlocution
   circum – around
   loqu – talk
   tion – act or state (noun)
6. soliloquy
   sol – alone
   loqu – talk
7. mollify
   moll – soft
   fy – make (verb)
8. gregarious
   greg — group
   ous – full of (adjective)
9. heterodox
   hetero – different
   dox – opinion
10. alter ego
    alter – other
    ego – I
11. aver
    ver – true
12. megaton
    mega – large