You can finally become a dictionary yourself without necessarily cramming the meaning of every word. There are many ways of getting the meaning of a word, and one of them is studying the group of letters that make that word (prefixes, infixes and suffixes). Compare the word with other words that have a similar group of letters. The logic is that words with similar parts/ group of letters tend to have similar meaning, which can help you come to the meaning of other new words easily. One of the most common words used in everyday communication is the word “congratulations”. You will discover that there are many other words that contain the letters “con/com”, “grat” and “tion” as it is in the word “congratulations”. We have already seen in some previous articles that when “com” and “con” appear in a word, they render the sense of things happening between more than one party. The two (com/ con) originate from Latin to mean “with” or “together”. We have also seen the “tion” as a suffix which helps to change verbs into nouns. The root word “grat” comes from Latin where it carries the meaning of being pleasing/ pleased or thankful. This is why all words that contain “grat” as a root word have the element of thanking, pleasing or something welcome. When one has had a level of success that we are pleased with, we congratulate them upon their success. Look at some other words such as grateful, gratitude, ingratiate and many more. The suffix “ful” means “full of” which renders the word “grateful” to mean “full of thanking” or thankful. Remember “grat” is related to being appreciative. At this point, you can easily discover that to “ingratiate” is related to “gratify”, both words are about pleasing others or making oneself welcome to others. You must have heard the phrase “with profound gratitude and great humility…” used by public speakers when thanking others who contributed to an achievement. The word “gratitude” shows the quality of being thankful. Compare other words such as gratis (free of charge) and gracious (kind/ pleasant). The writer is a professional English Language instructor
