PORT comes from the Latin verb portare, meaning "to carry." Thus, something portable can be carried around. A porter carriers your luggage, whether through a train station or high into the Himalayas. When we transport something, we have it carried from one place to another. And goods for export are carried away to another country.

Word Phonetic Audio
portage ˈpȯr-tij
portfolio pȯrt-ˈfō-lē-ˌō
comport kəm-ˈpȯrt
deportment di-ˈpȯrt-mənt

PEND comes from the Latin verb pendere, meaning "to hang" or "to weigh." (In the Roman era, weighing something large often required hanging it from a hook on one side of the balance scales.) We find the root in English words like appendix, referring to that useless and sometimes troublesome tube that hangs from the intestine, or that section at the back of some books that might contain some useful additional information.

Word Phonetic Audio
pendant ˈpen-dənt
append ə-ˈpend
appendage ə-ˈpen-dij
suspend sə-ˈspend

PAN comes from a Greek word meaning "all"; as an English prefix, it can also mean "completely," "whole," or "general." A panoramic view is a complete view in every direction. A pantheon is a temple dedicated to all the gods of a religion. A pandemic outbreak of a disease may not affect the entire human population, but enough to produce a catastrophe.

Word Phonetic Audio
panacea ˌpa-nə-ˈsē-ə
pandemonium ˌpan-də-ˈmō-nē-əm
pantheism ˈpan(t)-thē-ˌi-zəm
panoply ˈpa-nə-plē

EXTRA is Latin for "outside" or "beyond." So anything extraterrestrial or extragalactic takes place beyond the earth or the galaxy. Something extravagant, such as an extravaganza, goes way beyond the normal. And extra is naturally a word itself, a shortening of extraordinary, "beyond the ordinary."

Word Phonetic Audio
extradite ˈek-strə-ˌdīt
extrapolate ik-ˈstra-pə-ˌlāt
extrovert ˈek-strə-ˌvərt
extraneous ek-ˈstrā-nē-əs

PHOT comes from the Greek word for "light." Photography uses light to create an image on film or paper, and a photocopy is an image made by using light and tiny electrically charged ink particles.

Word Phonetic Audio
photoelectric ˌfō-tō-i-ˈlek-trik
photovoltaic ˌfō-tō-väl-ˈtā-ik
photon ˈfō-ˌtän
photosynthesis ˌfō-tō-ˈsin(t)-thə-səs

LUC comes from the Lation noun lux, "light," and the verb lucere, "to shine or glitter." In ancient Rome, Lucifer, meaning "Light-bearer," was the name given to the morning star, but the name was eventually transferred by Christians to Satan. This tradition, which dates back to the period before Christ, said that Lucifer had once been among the angels but had wanted to be the great light in the sky, and for his pride had been cast out of heaven and thus became the opponent of everything good.

Word Phonetic Audio
lucid ˈlü-səd
elucidate i-ˈlü-sə-ˌdāt
lucubration ˌlü-kyə-ˈbrā-shən
translucent tran(t)s-ˈlü-sᵊnt

MOR/MORT comes from Latin words meaning "to die" and "death." A mortuary is a place where dead bodies are kept until burial, and a postmortem examination is one conducted on a recently dead body. The Latin phrase "Memento mori" means "Remember that you must die"; so a memento mori is the name we give to a reminder of death; the skulls you can find carved on gravestones in old cemeteries are examples.

Word Phonetic Audio
mortality mȯr-ˈta-lə-tē
moribund ˈmȯr-ə-(ˌ)bənd
amortize ˈa-mər-ˌtīz
mortify ˈmȯr-tə-ˌfī

TROPH comes from the Greek trophe, meaning "nourishment." This particular troph- root doesn't show up in many everyday English words (the troph- in words like trophy, apostrophe, and catastrophe has a different meaning), but instead tends to appear in scientific terms.

Word Phonetic Audio
atrophy ˈa-trə-fē
hypertrophy hī-ˈpər-trə-fē
dystrophy ˈdi-strə-fē
eutrophication yü-ˌtrō-fə-ˈkā-shən

Words from Mythology and History

Word Phonetic Audio
aeolian harp ē-ˈō-lē-ən'härp
cynosure ˈsī-nə-ˌshu̇r
laconic lə-ˈkä-nik
mnemonic ni-ˈmä-nik
platonic plə-ˈtä-nik
sapphic ˈsa-fik
Socratic sə-ˈkra-tik
solecism ˈsä-lə-ˌsi-zəm