Ancient Greek word root · Mind & Feeling

phil-: loving, dear

phil- is an Ancient Greek root meaning “loving, dear”. Learn its variants and explore 8 connected words.

Meaning and variants

Meaning: loving, dear

Root forms: phil-, philo-, -phile, -philia

Source word: φίλος — that which is loved or important: beloved, dear, of or from a friend

Word family and examples

• philosophy

  the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence

• philanthropy

  the desire to promote the welfare of others, shown by generous donations

• pedophile

  An adult or older adolescent who is sexually attracted to prepubescent children.

• philharmonic

  devoted to music (chiefly in the names of orchestras)

• hemophilia

  US standard spelling of haemophilia.

• neutrophil

  Of a cell: being more easily or more fully stained by neutral dyes than by acidic or alkaline (basic) ones.

• necrophilia

  A pathological attraction to dead bodies.

• bibliophile

  a person who collects or loves books

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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