This is a list of popular American prefixes. As a passing interest I also looked in the dictionary to see how many words had those beginnings and endings. I then added the number to the right of each so you can see how much that prefix is used. It surprised me as well. I give this list to my students and we go over some selected ones to show them how it works. I start with "tele" which means "at a distance." We then move to "scope" which means "an instrument for seeing" and thus we get from telescope "an instrument for seeing at a distance." We then look at a long word such as "teleconference." "Tele" meaning "at a distance," "confer" meaning to discuss or talk, and "ence" meaning, "act of doing." Thus we have a "doing discussion at a distance."