Vocabulary Basics for Business [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Prefixes Expressing Number

Some words indicate very plainly a number of something, or "how many." One-way traffic moves in a single direction. A two-edged knife is sharp on both edges. A three-layer cake is, as it is named, a cake consisting of three layers. Many words indicate a number of something by using a prefix. You probably already know many words indicating numbers.

Ones

Fill in each blank space with the correct prefix.

A ________________ corn is a fictional, horselike animal with one horn.

To ________________ fy is to bring together or combine into a single unit.

The speaker gave her ________________ logue at noon; the talk was ________________ tonous.

Plans for the new rapid transportation system include building a ________________ rail.

Did you write unicorn, unify, monologue, monotonous, and monorail? The prefixes uni-and mono-mean "single" or "one."

Twos

Now insert prefixes that mean "two."

Elena speaks English and Spanish. She is ________________ lingual.

That agreement was ________________ lateral. Both sides were party to it.

That music is a ________________ et for piano and violin.

We need two copies; please submit your offer in ________________ plicate.

They meet every two years. This ________________ ennial event is well attended.

Did you write bilingual, bilateral, duet, duplicate, and biennial? Bi- and du- are prefixes that mean "two."

Less common are the prefixes di-and diplo-. We see di- in science, as in dioxide ("having two oxygen atoms"). A diplomat is one who deals with others; the word comes from the history of the diplomat as someone who delivers or exchanges letters, letters folded in two, or doubled.

Threes

Now try some prefixes that mean "three."

The form has three sheets alike. It is in ________________ plicate.

Ken has not mastered his bicycle. He still rides his ________________ cycle.

A closed figure with three sides enclosing three angles is a ________________ angle.

Did you write tri- in all three blank spaces to indicate "three"?

Tens, Hundreds, and Thousands

Write a prefix in each blank space. If you are not sure of the prefix, refer to the following box.

The 1960s were the ________________ ade of the "flower children."

A decade is one-tenth of a ________________ ury.

In 1976, the United States celebrated the bi ________________ ennial of its independence.

A ________________ ipede has many legs, but maybe not exactly 100.

The speedometer on his car shows its speed in miles as well as in ________________ meters.

That personal computer has 512 ________________ bytes (or 512,000 bytes) of RAM.

A ________________ ennium is a period of 1,000 years.

One ________________ on is equal to one thousand thousand, or 1,000,000.