Vocabulary from Classical Roots (EPS)

Vocabulary from Classical Roots is the Educators Publishing Service workbook series that teaches English vocabulary by walking students through the Greek and Latin roots underneath. It has been the quiet default in classical homeschool programs and private-school prep academies since the early 1980s.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical / subject-specialist / workbook
Worldview	Secular (content-neutral; suitable across all worldviews)
Grades	4-12 (Books A-F)
Formats	Print workbooks with teacher keys
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	2
ESA-common	Yes, in most ESA programs
Accredited	No (supplement)
Established	First edition 1980s
Website	epsbooks.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Root-based vocabulary study with SAT-level words by Book F
Ease of teaching	5	Workbook is self-guided; parent role is checking keys
Content quality	4	Clear, consistent format; literary passages show their age
Flexibility	5	Modular; pairs with any English or classical program
Value for money	5	Roughly $15-$25 per workbook per grade; among the cheapest vocabulary programs in print
Worldview scope	5	Fully secular; no sectarian content
Visual/design	2	Monochrome, text-dense, unfashionable
Support resources	3	Teacher keys and an online component; no forum or video

Who the publisher is

Vocabulary from Classical Roots is published by Educators Publishing Service (EPS), a long-running educational publisher now operating as a brand under School Specialty, a K-12 supplier headquartered in Greenville, Wisconsin. EPS was founded in 1952 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and built its reputation on remedial-reading workbooks, spelling and phonics materials, and supplemental language-arts programs, many of which were designed for Orton-Gillingham-trained specialists and private-school classrooms before crossing over to the homeschool market.

Vocabulary from Classical Roots itself was developed by Norma Fifer and Nancy Flowers. Its entry point is Book A (targeted at grade 7, though used as early as grade 5 in accelerated classical programs), and the series runs through Book F at grade 12. The authors organize each book around Greek and Latin root families, the roots themselves, their meanings, and English derivatives, and each lesson pairs vocabulary acquisition with short literary passages, etymology exercises, and fill-in-the-blank application.

The series' scale of use is difficult to measure precisely, as EPS does not publish sales figures, but the program is a standard selection in the Memoria Press upper-school sequence, in Veritas Press's self-paced English track at the upper-grammar and logic-stage levels, and in the vocabulary curricula of many private classical academies. In secular homeschool circles, it is also the most-recommended vocabulary supplement for SAT preparation alongside its EPS sibling, Wordly Wise 3000. The distinction between the two is pedagogical: Vocabulary from Classical Roots teaches roots and morphology; Wordly Wise 3000 teaches discrete words.

The core pedagogy

Each book in the Vocabulary from Classical Roots series follows an identical template. A lesson introduces two to four Greek or Latin roots (for example, circum- "around," -ducere "to lead"), gives each root's meaning, lists two to four English words derived from each root, and then defines and illustrates those English words with short sentences. The student then completes exercises: matching words to definitions, filling in the correct derivative in a sentence, choosing the correct root for a given meaning, and writing short responses that use the words in context.

The pedagogical bet is a strong one and well-supported by the reading-and-vocabulary research: a student who learns roots generalizes to unfamiliar words more reliably than a student who memorizes discrete vocabulary lists. A student who knows aqua- will recognize aqueduct, aquifer, aquamarine, aquatic, and a dozen medical and biological terms the program never teaches explicitly. This is why classical educators prefer the series over discrete-word programs: it compounds.

Signature mechanics: (1) Root families, not word lists. Each lesson teaches two to four roots and their derivatives together, so the student sees the pattern rather than memorizing individual meanings. (2) Literary passages at each chapter break. The program pulls short passages from classical and modern literature that use the vocabulary just introduced, training students to recognize the words in context rather than only in workbook sentences. (3) Graduated difficulty across the six books. Book A introduces Latin and Greek roots at roughly a seventh-grade reading level; Book F treats advanced Greek and Latin roots in SAT-level and college-preparatory vocabulary. (4) Answer key sold separately. The teacher guide or answer key is a distinct purchase from the student workbook, which keeps the student workbook's retail price low but adds a small additional line to the budget.

A day in the life

An eighth-grader working Book B starts the morning with vocabulary as part of a language-arts block. Lesson 10 opens with three roots, greg- (from the Latin for "flock"), -scope (from the Greek for "to see"), and tele- (from the Greek for "far"). The student reads the brief etymology notes and the list of English derivatives: congregate, segregate, gregarious; microscope, telescope, periscope, kaleidoscope; telegraph, television, telepathy. This takes ten to fifteen minutes of reading.

The exercises follow. A matching section pairs words with definitions; a fill-in section uses the derivatives in sentences; a short constructive-writing exercise asks the student to write two or three sentences using three of the new words correctly. Total time: twenty to thirty minutes for the full lesson, three to four days per week. A parent working from the teacher key corrects the work in under ten minutes. At the end of each unit, a cumulative review drills retention across the prior lessons.

The pace is deliberately slow. A family using Book B over the course of a standard academic year will complete roughly one lesson per week for thirty weeks, which equals the total content of the book with review time. Faster students can finish a book in a single semester; slower students can stretch it over a full year without losing the benefit.

What they do exceptionally well

Root-based vocabulary acquisition. The core pedagogical choice, teaching Greek and Latin roots and their English derivatives together, is the single most-endorsed method in the vocabulary-research literature and the one most consistent with how strong adult readers actually learn new words. Students who complete Books A through F graduate with a working knowledge of roughly 200 Greek and Latin roots and 1,000-1,500 derived English words, which generalizes to tens of thousands of additional words they have never been taught explicitly.

Compatibility with classical and literature-based programs. Because the series is modular and secular, it slots cleanly into nearly any upper-grammar, logic-stage, or rhetoric-stage English curriculum. Memoria Press, Veritas Press, Classical Conversations families, Sonlight (secular components), and independent eclectic homeschoolers all use the series without friction. Pairing with a Latin program, even a basic one like Latina Christiana or Visual Latin, compounds the effect significantly, since students meet the same roots on both sides.

Price. Each workbook in the series runs roughly $15-$25 at full EPS list, and used copies are plentiful on secondary markets. A full six-year secondary vocabulary track costs under $150 in materials. For comparison, Wordly Wise 3000 is similarly priced; IEW's Advanced Communication Series vocabulary component is bundled into larger courses at five-to-ten times the cost.

What they do poorly

Visual design. The workbooks are monochrome, text-dense, and have the aesthetic of a 1990s textbook reprint. For students who need visual engagement to stay on task, the page is actively discouraging. The teacher key and the student workbook look identical except for the answers printed in place. The online companion is minimal and does not significantly improve the visual experience.

Literary passages showing their age. The excerpts chosen by the original authors skew toward mid-twentieth-century American and British literary fiction and nonfiction, and the passages themselves are now thirty to forty years old. Students and parents occasionally report that the reading passages assume cultural references. Cold War geopolitics, mid-century magazine journalism, that require outside context for a contemporary thirteen-year-old to parse. The vocabulary training itself is not affected, but the passages are not as engaging as they were in 1984.

Limited parent support for diagnosing errors. The teacher key gives correct answers but not explanations of why an answer is correct. A parent who is unfamiliar with Greek and Latin morphology cannot easily explain to a student why credo produces credential and not credulous, if the student asks. Families who want more pedagogical scaffolding on the etymology side may prefer programs that include teacher narratives, like the English from the Roots Up approach.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Vocabulary from Classical Roots if: you want a secular, modular vocabulary supplement that pairs with any English or classical program; your student is preparing for SAT or ACT and needs sustained vocabulary exposure; you want root-based acquisition over discrete-word memorization; budget is a constraint; you value pedagogical consistency across a six-year secondary sequence.

• Skip Vocabulary from Classical Roots if: your student needs a full-color, visually engaging workbook to stay on task; you want a vocabulary program integrated into a broader literature or composition course rather than standalone; your family prefers a Bible-rooted vocabulary supplement (Abeka Vocabulary, Spelling, Poetry, and Penmanship stitches vocabulary into a Christian-evangelical track); your student is under grade 5 (Book A starts at grade 5, not earlier).

Cost honest assessment

As of April 2026, Vocabulary from Classical Roots student workbooks run roughly $15-$22 per book at the EPS site and commonly $12-$20 at secondary retailers like Rainbow Resource. Teacher keys run $15-$25 per book. A complete six-year secondary sequence (Books A through F, plus keys) therefore runs approximately $180-$280 retail, often substantially less used.

Compared to Wordly Wise 3000 (similarly priced from the same publisher) and to IEW's vocabulary components (bundled into $80-$150 curriculum packages per level), Vocabulary from Classical Roots is among the cheapest serious secondary vocabulary programs in the homeschool market. A one-year supply for a single student in a single book runs $30-$40 all in, less than a single textbook in any core subject.

ESA eligibility notes

Vocabulary from Classical Roots is secular and carries no worldview content, which simplifies ESA eligibility in every state ESA program that covers curricula. The series is routinely approved on Arizona's ClassWallet, Florida's MyScholarShop, Iowa's Student First Scholarship, Utah Fits All, West Virginia's Hope Scholarship, and Arkansas's LEARNS Act marketplace. EPS does not publish a dedicated ESA workflow; families typically order through Rainbow Resource, Christianbook, or EPS directly and seek reimbursement through the state marketplace. Because the content is secular, no state ESA program currently restricts its purchase on religious grounds.

Alternatives

• Wordly Wise 3000, a family would pick Wordly Wise over Vocabulary from Classical Roots because Wordly Wise 3000 starts at grade K and runs through grade 12, which makes it the fuller choice for families beginning vocabulary instruction before seventh grade; Vocabulary from Classical Roots starts at Book A for grade 5.
• English from the Roots Up, a family would pick English from the Roots Up over Vocabulary from Classical Roots because it uses flashcard-style root drill with more parent-led discussion, which fits younger students and classical families who prefer oral recitation.
• IEW's Advanced Communication Series, a family would pick IEW over a standalone vocabulary workbook because IEW bundles vocabulary, composition, and literature into a single course, which suits families who want an integrated English-language-arts package rather than modular supplements.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed the EPS product pages for all six levels of Vocabulary from Classical Roots, the sample pages posted publicly by EPS and Rainbow Resource, and the Memoria Press and Veritas Press upper-school recommendation pages that specify which levels of the series they use in which grades. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy Reviews and the HSLDA vendor directory. Prices verified April 2026.