Copy both sections (the first consists of fairly familiar terms, the
second of less familiar terms) of each of the following word-groups.
Find the key-syllable, underscore it in each word, observe any
modifications in its form. Decide for yourself what its meaning is; then
verify or correct your conclusion by reference to the dictionary. Study
the influence of the key-syllable upon the meaning of each separate word;
find the word's original signification, its present signification. Add to
each word-group as many cognate words as you can (1) think of for
yourself, (2) find in the dictionary by looking under the key-syllable.
Fill the blanks in the sentences after each word-group with terms chosen
from the first section of words in that group.
(1) Animosity, unanimous, magnanimity;
(2) animate, animadvert, equanimity.
_Sentences_: It was the ____ opinion that to so noble a foe ____
should be shown. The spiteful man continued to display his ____.
(1) Annual, annuity, anniversary, perennial, centennial, solemn;
(2) superannuate, biennial, millennium.
_Sentences_: The amateur gardener made the ____ discovery that the
plant was a ____. The ____ celebration of the great man's birth took a
____ and imposing form in our city. By a happy coincidence the increase in
his ____ came on his wedding ____.
(1) Audit, auditor, auditorium, audience, inaudible, obey;
(2) aurist, auricular, auscultation.
_Sentences_: His voice may not have been ____, but it certainly did
not fill the ____. Not one ____ in all that vast ____ but was willing to
____ his slightest suggestion. He was not willing that they should ____
his accounts.
(1) Automatic, automobile, autocrat, autobiography;
(2) autograph, autonomy.
_Sentences_: The ____ dictated to his secretary the third chapter
of his ____. The habit of changing gear properly in an ____ becomes
almost ____.
(1) Cant, descant, incantation, chant, enchant, chanticleer, accent,
incentive;
(2) canto, canticle, cantata, recant, chantry, chanson, precentor.
_Sentences_: He ____ upon this topic in a queer, foreign ____.
Such utterances are mere sanctimonious ____; I had rather listen to the
____ of a voodoo conjurer. The little girl from the city was ____ with the
crowing of ____. The ____ of the choir somehow gave him the ____ to try
again.
(1) Cent, per cent, century, centennial;
(2) centenary, centime, centurion, centimeter, centigrade.
_Sentences_: For nearly a ____ this family has been living on a small
____ of its income. I wouldn't give a ____ for ____ honors; I want my
reward now.
(1) Chronic, chronological, chronicle;
(2) chronometer, synchronize, anachronism.
_Sentences_: It is a ____ record of changing activities and ____
ills. This page is a ____ of athletic news.
(1) Corps, corpse, corporal, corpulent, corporation, incorporate;
(2) corpus, habeas corpus, corporeal, corpuscle, Corpus Christi.
_Sentences_: The ____ gentleman said he did not believe in ____
punishment. The hospital ____ carried the ____ into the office of a great
____. He resolved to ____ this idea into the reforms he was introducing.
(1 and 2 combined) Creed, credulous, credential, credit, accredit,
discredit, incredible.
_Sentences_: He was not so ____ as to suppose that his ____ would be
accepted and his statements ____ without some investigation. It is to his
____ that he refused to be bound by his former religious ____. That such
____ has been heaped upon him is ____.
(1) Crescent, increase, decrease, concrete, recruit, accrue, crew;
(2) crescendo, excrescence, accretion, increment.
_Sentences_: The ____ now had ____ evidence that military life was
not altogether pleasant. In the olden days on the sea deaths from scurvy
might bring about a dangerous ____ in the size of the ____. His courage
____ with the profits that ____ to him. The ____ moon rode in the sky.
(1) Cure, secure, procure, sinecure, curious, inaccurate;
(2) curate, curator.
_Sentences_: Occupying the position for a while will ____ you of the
notion that it is a ____. He was ____ to know so a bookkeeper had managed
to ____ so high a salary. He ____ the equipment required.
(1 and 2 combined) Indignity, indignation, undignified, condign, deign,
dainty.
_Sentences_: We must not be too ____ about visiting ____ punishment
upon those responsible for this ____. He did not ____ to express his ____.
It was an ____ act.
(1) Durable, endure, during, duration, obdurate;
(2) durance, duress, indurate, perdurable.
_Sentences_: ____ the whole interview she remained ____. It is a
____ cloth; it will ____ all sorts of weather. The session was one of
prolonged ____.
(1) Finite, infinite, define, definite, confine, final, in fine,
unfinished;
(2) definitive, infinitesimal.
_Sentences_: One cannot ____ the ____. He ____ himself to purely ____
topics. ____ it was a ____ offer and the ____ one he expected to make.
The bridge is still ____.
(1) Flexibility, inflexible, deflect, inflection, reflection, reflex;
(2) circumflex, genuflection.
_Sentences_: The ____ influence of this act was great. I did not like
the ____ of his voice. After some ____ he decided to remain ____. He was
not to be ____ from his purpose. I could but admire the ____ of her tones.
(1) Fluent, affluent, influence, influenza, superfluous, fluid, influx,
flush (rush of water), fluctuate;
(2) confluent, mellifluous, flux, reflux, effluvium, flume.
_Sentences_: When you ____ the basin, an ____ of water fills it
again. He is an ____ man and a ____ writer. When I had ____, the doctor
gave me a disgusting ____ to drink. The wind must have an ____ in making
the waves ____ as they do. Any more would be ____.
(1) Fort, forte, effort, comfort, fortitude, fortify, fortress;
(2) aqua fortis, pianoforte.
_Sentences_: The defenders of the ____ held out with great ____.
Though a ____ or two stood at important passes, the border was not really
____. His ____ was not public speaking. It was the only by an ____ that he
could ____ them.
(1) Fraction, infraction, fracture, fragility, fragment, suffrage, frail,
infringe;
(2) diffract, refractory, frangible.
_Sentences_: It was in the course of his ____ of the rules that he
suffered the ____ of his collar-bone. He told the committee of ladies that
he was as fond of ____ as of ____. It is hardly a proof of ____ that he is
so willing to ____ upon the rights of others. The ____ scaffolding bent
and swung as he trod it.
(1 and 2 combined) Fugitive, fugue, refuge, subterfuge, centrifugal.
_Sentences_: Closing his eyes as if to listen better to the ____ was
a little ____ of his. The upward movement of the missile was arrested by
the ____ attraction of the earth. The ____ took ____ in an abandoned barn.
(1) Refund, confound, foundry, confuse, suffuse, profuse, refuse, diffuse;
(2) fusion, effusion, transfuse.
_Sentences_: With ____ cheeks and ____ utterance he made a ____
apology. The amount we lost through the defective work at your ____ should
be ____ to us. Such a blow might ____ but not ____ him. He ____ the
appointment.
(1) Belligerent, gesture, suggest, congested, digestion, register, jest;
(2) gerund, congeries.
_Sentences_: As he stopped before the cash ____ he gave a ____ which
showed that his ____ was none too good. His look was ____, but he lightly
made a ____. Amid the ____ traffic she stopped to ____ that pink would be
more becoming than lavender.
(1) Relate, translate, legislate, elation, dilated, dilatory;
(2) collate, correlate, prelate, oblation, superlative, ablative.
_Sentences_: With ____ eyes he ____ the passage for me. The ____ was
very ____ in agreeing upon the measure to be passed. He ____ the story
with pride and ____.
(1) Locate, locality, locomotive, dislocate;
(2) locale, allocate, collocation.
_Sentences_: In trying to ____ the mine as near the fissure as
possible he fell and ____ his hip. It was only ____ in that entire ____.
(1) Soliloquy, loquacious, loquacity, colloquial, eloquent, obloquy,
circumlocution, elocution;
(2) magniloquent, grandiloquent, ventriloquism, interlocutor, locutory,
allocution. (For related _log_ and _ology_ words see above under
Prying Into a Word's Relationships.)
_Sentences_: ____ always, he indulged at this time in a great deal
of ____. Though it was mere ____, yet there was something ____ about it.
Amid all this ____ he managed to rid himself of a good deal of ____
regarding Standish. Hamlet's ____ on suicide is a famous passage.
(1) Allude, elude, delude, ludicrous, illusory, collusion;
(2) prelude, postlude, interlude.
_Sentences_: Such evidence is ____, and belief in it is ____.
He ____ to a possible ____ between them. The more credulous ones he ____,
and the skeptical he manages to ____.
(1) Metrical, thermometer, barometer, pedometer, diametrically, geometry;
(2) millimeter, chronometer, hydrometer, trigonometry, pentameter.
_Sentences_: He was careful to consult both the ____ and the ____.
He always wore a ____ on these trips. The two were ____ opposed to each
other. The poet has great ____ skill. ____ is an exact science.
(1) Monotone, monotonous, monoplane, monopoly, monocle, monarchy,
monogram, monomania;
(2) monosyllable, monochrome, monogamy, monorail, monograph, monolith,
monody, monologue, monad, monastery, monk.
_Sentences_: His eye held a ____, his gold ring bore a ____ seal,
and his voice was a stilted ____. One thing I hate about a ____ is the
____ reference to everything as his majesty's. He had a ____ of the trade
in his town. He is suffering, not from madness, but from ____.
(1) Mortal, immortality, mortify, postmortem, mortgage, morgue;
(2) mortmain, moribund, À la mort.
_Sentences_: After a hasty ____ examination, the body was taken to
the ____. She was ____ at this reminder of the ____ on her father's
property. The ____ shall put on ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Mutual, mutation, permutation, commute, transmute,
immutable, moult.
_Sentences_: As he ____ that morning he reflected upon the ____ and
combinations of fortune. We suffer the ____ of this worldly life, but
ourselves are not ____. God's love is ____, and our love for each other
should be ____. Birds when they ____ are weakened in body and depressed in
spirit.
(1) Native, prenatal, innate, nature, unnatural, naturalize, nation,
pregnant, puny;
(2) denatured, nativity, cognate, agnate, nascent, renascence, née.
_Sentences_: It was some ____ influence, he thought, that gave him
his ____ physique. It was a ____ reply, but its heartlessness was ____.
He was not ____ to the country, but ____. ____ in his ____ was the love
of his own ____.
(1) Note, notion, notable, notice, notorious, cognizant, incognito,
recognize, noble, ignoble, ennoble, ignore, ignorance, ignoramus,
reconnoiter, quaint, acquaintance;
(2) notary, notation, connotation, cognition, prognosticate,
reconnaissance, connoisseur.
_Sentences_: In complete ____ of the enemy's position, he decided
that he would ____ it. ____ himself, he was ____ of what was going on
about him. You must ____ the conduct of such an ____. His ____ with this
____ gentleman ____ him. He ____ but would not ____ this ____ fellow.
The ____ is a ____ one. He could but ____ how ____ his brother had become.
(1) Panacea, panoply, panorama, pantomime, pan-American, pandemonium;
(2) pantheist, pantheon.
_Sentences_: Arrayed in all the ____ of savages, they acted the scene
out in ____. From this point the ____ of the country-side unrolled itself
before him. It is no ____ for human ills; any supposition that it is will
lead to ____. It is a ____ movement.
(1) Peter, petrify, petrol, stormy petrel, petroleum, saltpeter, pier;
(2) petrology, parsley, samphire.
_Sentences_: As he walked along the ____, he observed the flight of
the ____. The English name for gasoline is ____. ____ is used in the
manufacture of gunpowder. He was almost ____ at hearing of this enormous
stock of ____. The crowing of the cock caused ____ to weep bitterly.
(1 and 2 combined) Petty, petite, petit jury, petit larceny, petticoat,
pettifogger.
_Sentences_: Charged with ____, he was tried by the ____. The
contemptible ____ hid behind the ____ of his wife. She was a winsome
maiden, dainty and ____. It is a ____ fault.
(1 and 2 combined) Philosophy, philanthropy, Philadelphia, bibliophile,
Anglophile.
_Sentences_: His ____ was generous, but his ____ was not profound.
That queer old ____ hangs to the library like a caterpillar. It was the
love of humankind that caused Penn to name the city ____. Most Americans
are not ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Cosmopolitan, metropolitan, politics, policy, police.
_Sentences_: Those who engage in ____ lack, as a rule, a ____
outlook. It is merely ____ intolerance of towns and villages. The ____ of
the mayor was to increase the ____ force.
(1 and 2 combined) Potential, potency, potentate, impotent, omnipotent,
plenipotentiary.
_Sentences_: So far from being ____, we possess a ____ difficult to
estimate. The ____ sent an ambassador ____. A ____ solution of the problem
is this. ____ God.
(1) Impute, compute, dispute, ill repute, reputation, disreputable;
(2) putative, indisputable.
_Sentences_: She could not ____ the cost. There was some ____ as to
the cause of his ____. Let them ____ to me what motives they will. Though
somewhat ____, he was extremely solicitous about his ____.
(1) Abrogate, arrogate, interrogate, arrogant, derogatory, prerogative;
(2) surrogate, rogation, prorogue.
_Sentences_: In an ____ manner he ____ these ____ to himself. To ____
authority is to give opportunity for remarks ____ to one's reputation. He
skilfully ____ the witness.
(1) Salmon, sally, assail, assault, insult, consult, result, exultation,
desultory;
(2) salient, salacious, resilient.
_Sentences_: After the ____ the firing was ____. The defenders ____
out and ____ us, but the ____ of this effort only added to our ____. We
sat there watching the ____ leap over the waterfall and ____ about our
arrangements for taking them. To accept the remark as an ____ is to
acknowledge the speaker as an equal.
(1) Science, conscience, unconscious, prescience, omniscience, nice;
(2) sciolist, adscititious, plebiscite.
_Sentences_: By his ____ understanding of the issues he was able to
gain a reputation for ____. We thought he possessed ____, but he seemed
____ of his erudition. Except under the sharp necessities of ____, he was
ruled by a ____ thoroughly tender.
(1) Sect, section, non-sectarian, dissect, insect, intersection, sickle,
vivisection, segment;
(2) bisect, trisect, insection, sector, secant.
_Sentences_: He stood at the ____ of the roads, leaning on the shank
of a sharp ____. The foreman of the ____ gang is a member of our ____. The
boy was ____ an ____ with a butcher knife he had previously used to cut
for himself a large ____ of the Sunday cake. It is a ____ movement. He
defended the ____ of animals.
(1) Sense, consent, assent, resent, sentimental, dissension, sensation,
sensibility, sentence, scent, nonsense;
(2) sentient, consensus, presentiment.
_Sentences_: A woman of her ____ would shrink from a ____ of this
sort. He ____ in a single, crisp ____. To be ____ is to be guilty of ____.
He had the good ____ to ____ to this course. He ____ such ____ and the
causes that produced them. A hound hunts by ____.
(1) Despond, respond, correspond, corespondent, sponsor;
(2) sponsion, spouse, espouse.
_Sentences_: She ____ that her husband had been ____ with the ____.
The ____ of the movement could as yet see no reason to ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Structure, instructor, construct, obstruct, instrument,
destructive, misconstrue.
_Sentences_: The student ____ the intentions of his ____. He resolved
to ____ every effort to complete the ____. The ____ was one that might
easily be turned to ____ work. They ____ a grandstand overlooking the
racetrack.
(1) Terrace, territory, subterranean, inter, terrier;
(2) terrene, tureen, terrestrial, terra cotta, Mediterranean, terra firma,
parterre.
_Sentences_: The ____ was tearing a great hole in the ____ in order
to ____ a bone. He found rich ____ deposits. The discoverers laid claim to
the entire ____.
(1) Thesis, parenthesis, antithesis, anathema, theme, epithet, treasure;
(2) hypothesis, synthesis, metathesis.
_Sentences_: To set two ideas in ____ to each other makes both more
vivid. By way of ____ he informed me that the subject was ____ to his
father. On this ____ he can summon a host of picturesque ____. The ____ is
one you will find it hard to establish. He was seeking Captain Kidd's
buried ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Tumor, tumidity, tumult, tumulus, contumacy.
_Sentences_: The ____ of his joints was due to rheumatism. His ____
led to a ____ of opposition. So excited was he at the discovery of the
____ that he did not permit the ____ on his hand to restrain him from
beginning the excavation.
(1 and 2 combined) Turbid, disturb, perturbation, turbulence, trouble,
imperturbable.
_Sentences_: His ____ manner gave no hint of the ____ within him. The
____ sweep of the stream caused her not the slightest ____. Do not ____
yourself with the thought that you are putting me to any ____.
(1 and 2 combined) Pervade, invade, evasion, vade mecum.
_Sentences_: He promised that there would be no ____ of payments.
Byron's _Childe Harold_ was my ____ during my travels in Switzerland
and Italy. The fragrance of heliotrope ____ the room. You must not ____ my
privacy like this.
(1) Avail, prevail, prevalent, equivalent, valiant, validity, invalid,
invalidate; (2) valetudinarian, valediction, valence.
_Sentences_: The ____ of the agreement has been thoroughly
established. Our cause is just, and must ____. It is ____ to admitting
that the terms are now ____. It was a ____ act and ____ the concessions
previously wrested from us. The ____ impression is that mere ingenuity
will not ____.
(1) Virtue, virile, virgin, virtually; (2) virago, virtuoso, triumvir.
_Sentences_: It was ____ a new arrangement. It is ____ soil. To
be ____ and daring is every boy's dream. ____ is its own reward.
(1) Revive, survival, convivial, vivid, vivify, vivacious, vivisection;
(2) vive (le roi), qui vive, bon vivant, tableau vivant.
_Sentences_: He has a ____ manner, a ____ spirit. The ____ of the
opposition to the ____ of animals is very marked. You cannot ____ a dead
cause or scarcely ____ memories of it. The ____ coloring of her cheeks was
a sure sign of health, or of skill.