Ancient Greek word root · Form & Making

-ody: song

-ody is an Ancient Greek root meaning “song”. Learn its variants and explore 7 connected words.

Meaning and variants

Meaning: song

Root forms: od-, -ode, -ody, melod-

Source word: ᾠδή — the art of singing

Word family and examples

• tragedy

  a play or event dealing with tragic events and an unhappy ending

• melody

  a sequence of single notes that is musically satisfying

• electrode

  The terminal through which electric current passes between metallic and nonmetallic parts of an electric circuit.

• diode

  An electronic device that allows current to flow in one direction only; used chiefly as a rectifier.

• cathode

  An electrode, of a cell or other electrically polarized device, through which a positive current of electricity flows outwards (and thus, electrons flow inwards). It can have either a negative or a positive voltage with respect to anode of the same polarized device (depending on whether the device is a load or a source, respectively).

• anode

  An electrode, of a cell or other electrically polarized device, through which a positive current of electricity flows inwards (and thus, electrons flow outwards). It can have either a positive or a negative voltage with respect to cathode of the same polarized device (depending on whether the device is a load or a source, respectively).

• triode

  A thermionic valve containing an anode, a cathode, and a control grid; small changes to the charge on the grid control the flow from cathode to anode, which makes amplification possible.

Root connections help with vocabulary recall. They are not a complete etymological history, and a spelling match alone does not prove a relationship.

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