A root word is a real word and you can make new words from it by adding prefixes and suffixes.
Some words are made up of different parts, for example, unemployment
unemployment has a beginning (prefix), a middle (root word) and an ending (suffix).
unemployment — un (prefix), employ (root word), ment (suffix).
Where words are linked like this, they are called a word family. Knowing root words can help us understand the meaning of a word when we see them in a context.
Root words are helpful for learning both the meaning and the spelling of a word.
If we take the root word, employ, and add other suffixes we can make other words, such as employed, employee, employer. The basic word or root meaning stays thye same but adding suffixes or prefixes slightly changes the meaning.
Employed- being hired in a job or occupation
Employee- someone who works for another person or company and gets paid for the work.
Employer- one who hires others to work for him/her. (leader or boss).
Here are some more examples of root words and their word families:
use: useless, usable, used, using, user, misuse , unused
friend: friendly, friendship, unfriendly, friendless
faith: faithful, faithfully, unfaithful, unfaithfully