Building Vocabulary Through Root Words: Ink & Echo Session



Ink & Echo 

Sahyadri Arts College, Shivamogga

Department of English

Date: 26 September 2026
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Venue: G-31

Building Vocabulary Through Root Words

As part of Ink & Echo – the English Literary Club @SAC, a special session on “Building Vocabulary” was conducted on 26 September 2026. The session introduced students to a simple and effective way of expanding vocabulary through root words.

Students were introduced to the concept of a root word as the basic part of a word that carries its central meaning. Instead of memorising individual words, students were encouraged to identify a common root and learn several related words from it.

For example:

PORT = to carry

  • transport – to carry from one place to another

  • import – to bring into a country

  • export – to send out of a country

  • portable – capable of being carried

The session also introduced useful roots such as bio, geo, dict, scrib/script, port, spect, aud, phon, tele, photo, graph, chron, psych, phil, anti, auto, micro, bene, mal, and manu, which frequently occur in academic vocabulary, newspapers, literature, science, and competitive examinations.

Word of the Day: FID

The session concluded with the root FID, meaning “faith” or “trust.”

Students explored words formed from this root, including:

  • fidelity – faithfulness or loyalty

  • confide – to trust someone with a secret

  • confidence – trust or belief in oneself or something

  • confident – having strong belief in oneself

  • confidant – a trusted person to whom one shares personal matters

  • infidelity – unfaithfulness or lack of loyalty

  • fideism – belief based primarily on faith rather than reason

  • fiduciary – involving a relationship of trust, especially in legal or financial matters

The session highlighted how understanding word roots can help students decode unfamiliar words, strengthen vocabulary, and develop greater confidence in academic and everyday communication.

Ink & Echo – where words find their voice.


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