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9th grade · English Language Arts · Unit 4 of 14

Word Detective

Roots, prefixes and meaning in context

What your child practices

Using prefixes, suffixes and Latin and Greek bases to work out new words, choosing a meaning from the sentence around a word, and subject words like product, mass and scale.

New York State Learning Standards learning standard: 9-10L4; 9-10L6 · roots, prefixes and meaning in context

How we explain it

Children can open this short lesson before they practice.

  1. Break a word into parts: un- + break + -able = not able to be broken.
  2. Greek and Latin bases help: tele (far), bio (life), graph (write).
  3. Use the sentence to choose a meaning. Subject words like product, mass and scale have special meanings.

Example: “She was meticulous, checking every figure twice.” What does meticulous mean? The clue: she checks every figure twice. That shows great care with details. Answer: very careful about details

Word Detective in New York

In the New York State Learning Standards, this is unit 4 of 14 in 9th grade English Language Arts, after Grammar & Style and before Literary Devices.

Gradelings describes a child's practice on this unit as Beginning, Approaching, Meeting or Exceeding (Four practice steps). That reflects practice, not a report-card mark: the teacher decides the mark.

Source: New York State Education Department (NYSED)

Sample questions

A taste of this unit. In the app, questions change every time and get easier or harder to match your child.

  1. Question 1

    Choose the best meaning of meticulous. “She was meticulous, checking every figure twice.”

    • quick and sloppy
    • angry
    • very careful about details
    • careless

  2. Question 2

    Which word could mean a study of living things?

    • chronology
    • biology
    • geology
    • astronomy

  3. Question 3

    What is the base word in unhelpfulness?

    • help
    • ness
    • unhelp
    • helpful

  4. Question 4

    Choose the best meaning of candid. “Her candid answer surprised us, because she told us exactly what she thought.”

    • honest and open
    • secretive
    • rude and loud
    • polite but false

  5. Question 5

    Choose the best meaning of reluctant. “He was reluctant to jump, and kept stepping back from the edge.”

    • tired
    • unwilling
    • skillful
    • eager

  6. Question 6

    What does the suffix -ist mean in scientist?

    • not able
    • without
    • full of
    • a person who does or studies something

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