McGraw-Hill's Top 50 Skills For A Top Score: ASVAB Reading and Math

Skill 15 Recognize Prefixes and Their Meanings

Prefixes are letter groups that are placed at the beginning of a word to change or alter its meaning in some way. A prefix modifies a word to create another word or thought.

For example, the prefix pre- means “before.” If you add the prefix pre- to the word view, you get a new word, preview, which means “to see before.” If you preview a movie, perhaps you are seeing it before it officially opens. For another example, suppose you add the prefix pre- to the word condition. The new word precondition means “a condition or requirement that was set beforehand.” For example, a background check might be a precondition for getting hired as a security guard. Not all words that start with pre- convey the ...