Deborah P. answered • 04/29/19
English, Reading, Writing Coach
One of the best ways to figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words is to remove prefixes and suffixes. Example:
Reconstructionist – Take off “re”, “tion” and “ist” – this leaves “construct”. You probably know the meaning of “construct”—to build something. Then you look at the prefix “re” which means “to do again”. Look at the suffix “tion” which means simply “an action”. The last suffix is “ist” which means “a person”. So now you can figure out that “reconstructionist” means a person who wants to rebuild something. Substitute that meaning for the unfamiliar word in the sentence, put in context, and the meaning is simple.
