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In this post, I’m going to share the most common GRE root words you’ll encounter in the GRE verbal section. These roots are fantastic because they don’t yield just one GRE word but a bevy of high-frequency GRE vocabulary. For instance, the prefix “circum-” can get you a solid handful of GRE words, including great words like circumspect.
While learning roots and prefixes won’t unlock the meaning of every GRE word, knowing roots will help in two ways. First off, when memorizing GRE words with familiar roots, you’ll be able to commit these words to memory more easily. Secondly, when you encounter unfamiliar words on the exam, knowing roots can help you crack these mystery words. Read on for a GRE root word list are roots for actual vocabulary you’ll see on the test.
TTP PRO TIP:
Finding familiar GRE synonyms for root words you are learning helps you better cement the connection for the root word.
Here are the word roots we’ll cover:
- GRE Word Root #1: Ben- (Meaning: Good)
- GRE Word Root #2: Mal- (Meaning: Bad)
- GRE Word Root #3: Dict- (Meaning: To Say)
- GRE Word Root #4: Circum- (Meaning: Around)
- GRE Word Root #5: Scrut/scruti (Meaning: To Inspect)
- GRE Word Root #6: A- (Meaning: Not, Without)
- GRE Word Root #7: Morph- (Meaning: Shape)
- GRE Word Root #8: Science/Sci- (Meaning: Knowledge)
- GRE Word Root #9: Anthro- (Meaning: Human)
- GRE Word Root #10: Ambi- (Meaning: Both)
- In Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- What’s Next?
Let’s begin with a positive GRE root: “ben-.”
GRE Word Root #1: Ben- (Meaning: Good)
Picture Big Ben, that towering clock in London, standing there like a friendly grandfather watching over the city. Just as Big Ben is a beloved landmark, words starting with “ben-” signal something positive or good coming your way.
Beneficent
Definition: generous and doing good
Think of combining “good” (ben-) with “making/doing” (-fic). A beneficent person doesn’t just wish good — they actively create it, like a fairy godmother turning pumpkins into carriages.
Example: The beneficent CEO treated her employees kindly, giving them a whole paid week off during Christmas and a handsome annual bonus.
Beneficial
Definition: providing positive or healthy effects
While beneficent describes someone doing good, beneficial describes something that is good for you. Think of it as the difference between the chef (beneficent) and the healthy meal they prepare (beneficial).
Example: Many claim that a bowl of chicken soup is beneficial for the common cold, clearing up the sinuses and giving you the feeling of a warm hug.
Benediction
Definition: a blessing or expression of good wishes
If we break the word benediction down, we get the following: “good” (ben-) + “speaking” (dict-). Literally, it means “speaking good things” to someone.
Example: Before introducing the valedictorian, the university chancellor gave a benediction to the class of 2025, ushering a wave of positivity over the hushed audience.
Let’s now turn our attention to a negative GRE root: “mal-.”
GRE Word Root #2: Mal- (Meaning: Bad)
Just as a malfunction is something going wrong, the prefix “mal” signals something harmful or negative. While “ben-” brought us good things, “mal-” shows us the darker side. Interestingly, there are more GRE words with “mal-” than with “ben-,” perhaps hinting that the English language sometimes skews negative.
Malicious
Definition: wishing someone harm or ill
Think of someone whose actions aren’t just bad (mal-) but are actively aimed at hurting others. Like a virus programmed to damage a computer, a malicious person programs their actions to cause harm.
Example: The malicious rumors quickly spread through the office, momentarily damaging reputations, before the CEO finally set the record straight.
Malady
Definition: an illness or serious problem, either literal or figurative
This word harkens from the medieval times, when malady could mean anything from the plague to a kingdom in turmoil. Today, we use it for both physical illnesses and societal problems. For example, writers often pair a GRE synonym — “malaise” — with the word “societal.”
Example: Climate change isn’t just an environmental malady — it’s a social and economic one as well.
Malevolent
Definition: Having or showing a wish to do evil
Combine “bad” (mal-) with “wishing” (vol-), and you get a malevolent person who doesn’t just do bad things, but wishes for bad things to happen. A fairy tale villain who delights in others’ misfortune. Or the main villain in a comic book bent on revenge. A good GRE synonym is the word “malicious.”
Example: The malevolent sorcerer in the story didn’t just want power — he wanted to see the kingdom suffer.
TTP PRO TIP:
Creating word families is a great way to make words stick. For instance, many mal- words are cousins: malady→ailment→affliction, malicious→spiteful→vindictive, malign→vilify→denigrate.
Next, let’s examine a GRE root related to speech: “dict-.”
GRE Word Root #3: Dict- (Meaning: To Say)
Speaking of reinforcing the familiar, the GRE root “dict-” was paired with both “ben-” and “mal-” above (see: benediction, malediction.) “Dict-” is an important root in its own right, so I’ve included some other GRE level words for this root below.
Diction
Definition: the specific words someone uses, often revealing their expertise and background
Think “dictionary.” Just as a dictionary contains a collection of words, each person has their own personal collection of words they regularly use. This collection is their diction.
Example: The professor’s scholarly diction, peppered with terms like “paradigm” and “methodology,” made the lecture challenging for first-year students to follow.
Dictatorial
Definition: commanding or ruling with absolute power and authority
Despite having the root “dict-” (to say), the word dictatorial isn’t about dictating words — it’s about dictating people. For example, a dictator is someone who doesn’t just speak, but expects absolute obedience when they do.
Example: The new manager made decisions without any input from the team, a dictatorial approach that quickly damaged office morale.
Interdiction
Definition: the act of prohibiting or blocking something, especially the movement of goods or people.
While the word interdiction contains the root “dict-” (to say) and “inter-” (between), this GRE word isn’t about speaking between things — it’s about stopping things entirely. Think of it as the ultimate “No!” that creates a barrier between two objects.
Example: The naval blockade served as an interdiction strategy, preventing weapons from reaching the conflict zone.
TTP PRO TIP:
Using easy words to help you remember GRE root words can be highly beneficial. For instance, if you can’t remember the root “dict-”, think of a common word that uses it, such as “prediction.” When you predict something, you say it will happen before (the root pre-) it happens. This can help you infer what dict- means.
Next, let’s wrap our arms around the GRE root “circum-.”
GRE Word Root #4: Circum- (Meaning: Around)
For this GRE root, think “circle.” Just as a circle goes around, this root always relates to moving or looking around something.
Circumscribe
Definition: to limit or restrict within a certain boundary
A blend of “circum-” (around) and “scribe-” (to write), circumscribe literally means to draw a boundary around something. In geometry, you might circumscribe a shape within a circle. In life, circumstances might draw boundaries around your options.
Example: During the snowstorm, school administrators circumscribed the class’s recess to indoor areas.
Circumvent
Definition: to cleverly find a way around an obstacle or restriction
Think “circum-” (around) + “vent-” (go). The word circumvent is about finding a path around something that’s in your way, typically rules or obstacles.
Example: Rather than wait in the long security line, savvy travelers circumvent the delay by signing up for TSA PreCheck.
Circumspect
Definition: cautious and careful to consider all angles before acting
Think of it this way: “spect-” means to look (think of spectacles, or glasses). So, if you are circumspect, you look around before acting. You size up the situation and proceed with caution.
Example: After losing much of their savings in the early heydays of the Internet, the retired couple was circumspect about anything with the name crypto attached to it.
Let’s now inspect the GRE root “scruti-.”
GRE Word Root #5: Scrut/scruti (Meaning: To Inspect)
The popular GRE root “scruti-” means to inspect or look at something closely. You might have encountered before in the relatively common word “scrutiny,” which means intense examination. Let’s subject the following two words to scrutiny.
Scrutinize
Definition: to inspect very closely and rigorously
Turn scrutiny into a verb, and you get the word scrutinize. You might feel scrutinized if a cop pulls you over for speeding. Or you might find yourself scrutinizing an important contract before you sign it.
Example: The committee scrutinized the Ph.D candidate’s thesis, trying to find even the slightest logical inconsistency.
Inscrutable
Definition: impossible to interpret
The prefix “in-” means “not,” so inscrutable literally means “cannot be scrutinized.” Think of a perfect poker face: no matter how hard you try to read the expression, you just can’t figure out what’s behind it.
Example: Though the little boy plied his mother with questions about his birthday surprise, her face remained inscrutable.
TTP PRO TIP:
Many words also contain suffixes, groups of letters that come at the end of the word. Typically, these suffixes don’t change the meaning of a word — they change the part of speech. For instance: inscrutable (adjective) and inscrutability (noun).
Next, let’s review a GRE root you may already be familiar with: “a-.”
GRE Word Root #6: A- (Meaning: Not, Without)
For certain words, adding just one letter to the beginning of the word can flip the entire meaning to its opposite. I’m talking about the powerful root “a-.”
Atypical
Definition: not normal
By adding “a-” we take something that is typical and make it the exact opposite, or atypical.
Example: During his prime, it was atypical for Roger Federer to lose even a single set during the opening rounds of a tournament.
Anomalous
Definition: differing what is normal or expected
Sure, “nomalous” is not a word. But the root “nom-” (normal) indicates that something anomalous describes something that is not normal. The “a-” root negates the normal. Think of surprising weather patterns or someone’s unexpected behavior.
Example: This past October both the east and the west coasts featured highly anomalous heat, with California breaking 100 degrees for almost an entire week and New Yorkers witnessing a 70-plug degrees Halloween.
TTP PRO TIP:
Watch for this powerful “a-” prefix in other GRE words. For example, amoral (without morals), asymmetric (not symmetric), and apolitical (not political).
Let’s now discuss the GRE root “morph-.”
GRE Word Root #7: Morph- (Meaning: Shape)
“Morph-” describes the shape or structure of something. It’s a root you probably encountered as a child when learning about caterpillars, which undergo metamorphosis to become butterflies.
Amorphous
Definition: having no discernible shape or form
If you remember that “a-” means “without” or “not,” you might have understood this definition already. Blobs are amorphous, as are clouds (except for that fleeting moment when they look like dragons).
Example: Before the parade started, with thousands of attendees neatly separated by the pageantry, the crowd had been an amorphous gathering.
Morphology
Definition: the shape or structure of something
This word harkens from biology — the morphology of an organism is its shape or structure — and from linguistics — the form or shape of a word.
Example: Symmetry is a morphological characteristic across most vertebrates.
Anthropomorphic
Definitions:
(1) taking on human physical characteristics
(2) attributing human traits and emotions to non-human things
Knowing the roots “morph-” (shape) and “anthro-” (humankind) will get you “human-shaped.” This happens to be the first definition. For instance, many stuffed animals are a bit anthropomorphic with the placement of their eyes and lips upturned in a distinct smile.
The second definition of anthropomorphic goes a step further, actually imbuing animals, stuffed or otherwise, with human traits and emotions. Think of The Lion King, where the whole savannah is laughing, scheming, and falling in love. (Can you feel the anthropomorphism tonight?)
Example: The recent film Everything, Everywhere All at Once is so outrageously bold in its vision that it even anthropomorphizes two rocks by having them debate life’s thorniest existential questions.
Let’s now examine the GRE root “science” or “sci-.”
GRE Word Root #8: Science/Sci- (Meaning: Knowledge)
Interesting, right? Science, a word you probably hear or use almost every day, is actually a root that means knowledge. The meaning of this root probably isn’t too surprising, given that science is the accumulation of knowledge as it relates to the physical world.
Omniscient
Definition: all-knowing
Take the root “omni-”, which means “all,” and combine it with “science” and you get “all-knowing.” To small children, mom can seem omniscient. The guy on Jeopardy! who won millions of dollars, definitely omniscient. At the end of the day, I suppose, nothing is truly omniscient—not even ChatGPT (I say that half-jokingly). But learning these roots will get you further down the road of GRE vocabulary omniscience. And this list of common GRE words will take you even further down that road!
Example: For a person to be truly omniscient in any one subject, that subject must have a highly circumscribed knowledge domain.
Prescient
Definition: having the ability to predict and anticipate events or trends
Earlier in this post, I mentioned that the root “pre-” means before. Prescience is knowing something before it happens. Someone who is prescient is, therefore, able to predict things before they happen: economic forecasters, futurists, and that guy who said the Cubs would finally win the World Series.
Example: A critical skill for a business strategist is prescience: without being able to predict future trends and adapt in time, they’ll flounder at their job.
Nescient
Definition: ignorant
A less common word, but one that could still show up on the GRE, nescient takes the root “ne-,” which means “not,” giving us “not knowledgeable” or “ignorant.”
Example: Far from existing in a state of nescience regarding astrological phenomena, ancient civilizations had sophisticated means to predict and capture interstellar occurrences.
TTP PRO TIP:
Look out for the root “ne-” in other GRE vocab words, such as “nefarious” (villainous, evil) and “abnegate” (to reject or renounce something that is usually valuable).
Next, let’s review the GRE root “anthro-.”
GRE Word Root #9: Anthro- (Meaning: Human)
Describing anything relating to humankind, “anthro-” is a common root. In fact, you’ve probably encountered this root, if you’ve ever taken a class in anthropology, which is the study of different peoples.
Anthropocentric
Definition: viewing and interpreting everything in terms of human experience and values
If you look at the roots on the surface, throwing in “centri-” for center, you get “human-centered.” However, the actual definition is a little more subtle and is slightly negatively tinged. If something is anthropocentric, it is too focused on humankind’s role in something and ignores other important entities (typically animals).
Example: The prescient environmentalist warned that our anthropocentric view of the natural world — seeing it only through the lens of human benefit — would lead to catastrophic climate changes.
Misanthropic
Definition: inclined towards hating people
The prefix “mis-”, meaning against, signals a negative word. Indeed, misanthropy is the hatred of people in general. Someone who is misanthropic hates people and being around them.
Example: The other teachers would often tease Miss Anne Throwpick that she was the exact opposite as the sound of her name, misanthropic, would imply: she loved others and always believed they had the best of intentions.
Anthropogenic
Definition: created by people
A good way to avoid getting confused into thinking this word means “creating people” is to remember it leads with “anthro-” (humankind) and ends with the “gen-” (created from). So essentially, anthropogenic means “people-created.”
Example: The extent of anthropogenic pollution, much from our daily commutes, was on full display during the global lockdown, when the skies over highly populous cities cleared up for the first time in decades.
TTP PRO TIP:
The root “gen-” is also found in other GRE words, such as “engender” (to give rise to) and “congenital” (existing since birth).
Next, let’s discuss the GRE root “ambi-.”
GRE Word Root #10: Ambi- (Meaning: Both)
This root means “both” and comes up in a word that you might have heard before — ambidextrous (able to use both hands). “Ambi-” also features in several important GRE words, including what might be the GRE’s favorite word.
Ambivalent
Definition: having conflicting emotions about something
One of the most common (if not the most) GRE vocabulary words, ambivalent contains the root “valen-”, meaning strength. The word describes the complex mix of emotions and thoughts we might have when faced with something complex.
Indeed, the word ambivalent captures much of the flavor of the GRE verbal section, where passages frequently present balanced views showing both positives and negatives of an issue.
Example: After the euphoria of visiting and living in a new country wore off, the expat couple began to feel an increasing ambivalence to their new home, realizing many things about their original home (traffic, long lines at the grocery store) existed there, too.
Ambiguous
Definition: open to multiple interpretations so as to be confusing
The “ambi-” in ambiguous relates to there being multiple ways of interpreting something. So if a person is being ambiguous, then we don’t know which interpretation they mean (and there can be more than two possible interpretations.)
Example: The professor’s ambiguous feedback — ”interesting perspective” — left students unsure whether it was genuine praise or polite criticism.
In Conclusion
Now that you’ve seen these roots and their corresponding GRE words, make some flashcards! Vocab flashcards will help you commit these words to memory. For additional example sentences of GRE vocabulary words, check out the comprehensive GRE vocabulary word library at vocabulary.com.
But don’t stop there! Try to cluster words in this post with GRE words you’ve already learned. For instance, “malign” (to insult) can be grouped with the words calumniate, asperse, and others with similar meanings.
And for those words that prove difficult to retain, try using them as you go about your daily routine. For instance, if you notice something out of the ordinary, you might say that it is highly anomalous. As you continue to practice, you’ll get further down the road of GRE vocabulary omniscience!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is a root word?
Words are often made up of roots, or word particles, which typically come from Latin or Greek. These words can go at the beginning of the word, where they are known as prefixes. They can also go at the end of the word, where they are known as suffixes.
Prefixes tell us the meaning of the word; suffixes tell us a word’s part of speech (noun, adjective, etc.) A root word consists of these roots combined together to make a new word. For instance, in “variability” we have the roots “vari-” (different) + “ility,” which makes the word a noun.
How to find the root of a word?
To find the root of a word, look at the first part (the prefix) and the last part (suffix.) Since meaning is contained in the prefix, you should always look here first. If you don’t recognize the root in the prefix, knowing the suffix won’t necessarily help.
What is the difference between a GRE suffix, prefix, and root words?
The prefix comes at the beginning of a word, whereas the suffix comes at the end. Prefixes, notably, also can come in the middle of the word, as in many of the words above (like “ambivalent,” with “valen-”).
When we say “root words,” we are typically referring to prefix(es) because they express the meaning of the word. That is not to say all words are root words, or composed of roots. For example, words from middle French (“gauche”) or Old English (“uncanny”) are examples of words not composed of roots.
What’s Next?
Learning root words for GRE is not a silver bullet to unlocking GRE vocabulary. The truth is, many GRE vocabulary words look like they are composed of familiar roots. However, they often mean something very different than you’d expect by looking at the roots. Yes, I’m looking at you, “prevaricate” and “equivocal.”
To apply the roots you’ve learned here, as well as roots from other sources, here’s a list of 1200 high frequency GRE words. I recommend going through the words, looking at words that have a root that looks familiar, then guessing the definition (without looking, of course).
Pay attention to the rough percentage of words that roots help you understand. Take special note of words for which roots do not help (yep, I’m still looking at you, “prevaricate” and “equivocal”).
