5th Grade spelling
5th Grade Latin Roots Port, Spect and Tract
Latin roots port (carry), spect (look) and tract (pull) in transport, respect, attract and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
Read the spelling list
The pattern: Port means carry, spect means look and tract means pull. Every word contains one of the three roots.
A root is the part of a word that carries its core meaning, and a lot of English academic vocabulary is built from Latin roots. Port means carry, spect means look, and tract means pull or draw. Once students know that, transport (carry across), inspector (one who looks in) and attract (pull toward) stop being separate facts and become predictable.
The list has ten words for each root. Port includes important, reported, supporting, transport and transportation. Spect includes respect, suspect, aspect, perspective and spectrum. Tract includes contract, attractive, abstract, extract and contractor. Fifth grade is the standard time to introduce roots because students now read texts full of multi-syllable words that they cannot sound out, and a root gives them a way to work out meaning and spelling at once.
30 entries. Our solver needed 1.0 wrong guesses on average: 19 easy, 11 medium and 0 hard. The toughest is attract (3 misses), the quickest opportunities (0).
port (carry)
- important Easy · 1
- reported Easy · 1
- reports Medium · 2
- supporting Medium · 2
- supported Medium · 2
- transport Medium · 2
- opportunities Easy · 0
- transportation Easy · 0
- importance Easy · 0
- reporting Easy · 1
spect (look)
- respect Easy · 0
- perspective Easy · 1
- suspect Easy · 0
- aspects Easy · 0
- respectively Easy · 0
- aspect Easy · 0
- spectrum Medium · 2
- inspector Easy · 0
- respective Easy · 0
- suspected Easy · 0
tract (pull)
- contract Medium · 2
- attractive Easy · 1
- contracts Medium · 2
- attracted Easy · 1
- attract Medium · 3
- abstract Medium · 2
- attraction Easy · 1
- contractor Medium · 2
- extract Easy · 0
- contractors Medium · 2
Words worth a closer look
- transportTrans means across and port means carry, so to carry across. A two-part word that is easy to take apart.
- respectThe spect in the middle is the look: a good word to show that the root can sit after a prefix. Students often drop the c and write respet.
- attractAt is a form of ad, meaning toward, plus tract: to pull toward.
- inspectorIn plus spect plus or: the person who looks into something.
- abstractAbs means away and tract means pull: drawn away from the concrete.
Teaching it
Teach one root at a time with five words, then mix them. Have students circle the root in each word and write a prefix or suffix around it. Port is easy because it keeps the same spelling; spect is the one students often shorten to spec; tract stays whole. The most common error is losing a letter inside the root, such as respec or atract.
In hangman, give the root as a clue: this word has tract in it. Players can then guess the other letters knowing where the root sits. Print the worksheet and ask students to build as many new words as they can from one root plus a prefix, then check them in a dictionary.
Print a 5th Grade Latin Roots Port, Spect and Tract worksheet
Eight puzzles on one US Letter page, with a clue, letter blanks, an empty frame to draw in, an alphabet strip to cross off and circles to count misses. Page two is the answer key.
Need another sheet?
Draw eight different words from this list, right here. Same layout, new answer key.
Keep going
- 5th Grade Latin Roots Dict, Rupt and StructLatin roots dict (say), rupt (break) and struct (build) in predict, interrupt, structure and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Graph, Phon and TeleGreek roots graph (write), phon (sound) and tele (far) in photograph, telephone, telescope and more. Play hangman or print a worksheet.
- 5th Grade Greek Roots Bio, Auto and MicroGreek roots bio (life), auto (self) and micro (small): biology, automatic, microscope and more. Play hangman or print a spelling worksheet.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in Ance and EnceSort words ending in ance and ence: performance, distance, science, difference. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in Ant and EntWords ending in ant and ent: important, different, assistant, excellent, accident. Play hangman with the list or print a worksheet with answers.
- 5th Grade Words Ending in ItyWords ending in ity: ability, community, security, university, activity. Play hangman with the list or print a spelling worksheet with answers.