Words from Greek
Challenge Words
- dichotomy
- misogynist
- hypocrisy
- diphthong
- mnemonic
- anomaly
- zephyr
- hippopotamus
- euphemism
- anachronism
- metamorphosis
- hyperbole
- arachnid
- paradigm
- Eocene
- gynarchy
- pneumatic
- hemerocallis
- cynosure
Spelling Tips
- 1 In a few words from Greek, e appears at the end of a word and has long e sound \ē\: Some examples are acme, apostrophe, and hyperbole.
- 2 A \k\ sound in English often represents a sound from Greek that we don't actually use, and the most common spelling of this sound in English is ch: See anachronism, arachnid, character, chronic, chronology, dichotomy, hierarchy, matriarch, melancholy, patriarch, synchronous, notochord, tachometer, and gynarchy.
- 3 The most frequent sound that y gets in words from Greek is short i (\i\) as in calypso, cryptic, cynical, dyslexia, eponym, homonym, synchronous, synergy, synonym, synopsis, syntax, and polymer.
- 4 A long i sound (\ī\) in a word that comes from Greek is sometimes represented by y, especially after h, as in dynamic, hydraulic, hyperbole, hypothesis, hyphen, and hydrology.
- 5 The Greek letter called phi (pronounced \fī\), even though its sound is exactly the same as English f, almost always appears as ph in words from Greek. Consider, for example: apostrophe, diphthong, ephemeral, epiphany, euphemism, metamorphosis, metaphor, phenomenon, philanthropy, spherical, topography, zephyr, and hyphen. These words are only a sample: Hundreds of words in English derived from Greek show this spelling.
- 6 The letter o is the vowel most often used to connect two Greek word elements. If the connecting vowel sound is a schwa (\ə\) as in xylophone, notochord, and ergonomic and you must guess at the spelling of this sound, the letter o is a very good guess. The non–study-list words hypnotist, geometric, and electrolyte are among the many, many words made of Greek word elements connected by o.
- 7 The \j\ sound is always spelled with g in words from Greek. No j appears in any of the words in this list!
- 8 A schwa in words from Greek is occasionally spelled with y: See analysis, etymology, misogynist, odyssey, and zephyr.