Word Clues is a class dedicated to building student vocabulary through the study of Greek and Latin roots.
The textbook for Word Clues is Word Clues the Vocabulary Builder, which was written by a former English teacher at Helena High named Amsel Greene.
Interesting and Useful Links
Just for fun
- Click on the Visual Thesaurus for fun with words
- It’s Hard to Eat Just One – no, not potato chips — a brief and crunchy defense ofentomaphagy!
- Shakespeare Would Have Had a Blog!
- Schott’s Vocab – a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles — some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy
- Having trouble finding words for the suffix you are studying? Click on One Lookfor help with all sorts of wordy things! For roots, place an asterisk on either side of the word; for prefixes, place an asterisk after the word; and for a suffix, place the asterisk before the word.
Useful links for Word Study beyond the text
- English Word Information — word info about English Vocabulary
- “A Dead Language That’s Very Much Alive!”
- Language Sites on the Internet
- Click on Soju? Dictionary’s New Entries Debut to find out if you should be concerned when your friend tells you that she has decided to date a pescatarian!
- Visit dictionary.com to search for definitions, etymology, synonyms, and antonyms.
- Visit Free Rice to build SAT vocabulary skills and donate to hungry people.
- Word Spy is another fun way to learn more, yes more!, vocabulary. Hot Site!!
- Play Word Games here!
- Check out the Online Etymology Dictionary.
- If you’ve ever wondered where the phrase “A bird in the hand…” or “Bite the bullet” came from, find out fromChrysti the Wordsmith, a verbivore who broadcasts daily from the campus of Montana State University. Go to Sampler to hear her in action.
- Don’t just Take My Word For It — go to this site and check out Etymological Theory for yourself.
- Go to The Phrase Finder to find the meanings and origins of thousands of English phrases and sayings.
- Play MooT, the etymology, semantics, and grammar game.
- Etymologically Speaking for curious word origins
- From the impeccably sourced Oxford English Dictionary (OED), a word a day.
- A downloadable Roots of English dictionary — free!
- Play Etymologic — a brain-twisting word game — billed as the “toughest word game on the web”
- Word Quests for Word Seekers, an online dictionary of English word origins
- Handy reference chart for Greek, Latin, and other roots of the English language.
- Ever wonder where some of our expressions originate? Check out Expressions and Sayings to find out.
- The New York Times, Sunday online edition, has a great article about Scrabulous, an online Scrabble clone with identity and copyright issues.
- The Origin of the Crossword Puzzle