Prefix · people / population
From Greek "demos" (people): appears in words about governance, population science, and public health.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
"Demo-" comes from Greek "demos," meaning the people or citizen body. In ancient Athens, the demos was the assembly of free citizens who participated in direct democracy. The prefix now appears in political science, statistics, and public health.
The prefix is identical in Spanish: democracia (democracy), demografía (demography), demagogo (demagogue). "Epidemic" and "pandemic" also carry "demos" — both describe diseases spreading among the people.
Demo- combines with Greek roots to describe things related to people and populations:
"Pandemic" (pan- = all + demos) is a worldwide epidemic; "endemic" (en- = within + demos) describes a disease permanently established in a specific region or group.
demo-/ˈdem.oʊ/
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"Democracy" is political, but "demography" is scientific and "epidemic" is medical. All share the same Greek root meaning the people, but the fields they describe are very different.
A trick to remember it
Demo- = people. Anchor it with "democracy" (rule by the people) and "epidemic" (disease upon the people), and you have the core meaning. This single Greek root unlocks vocabulary across politics, social science, and public health.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
A disease that has spread across every continent and affects populations worldwide is called a ___.
The prefix demo- from Greek "demos" (people): appears in words about governance, population science, and public health. In Spanish it usually maps to demo-.
The prefix demo- is pronounced /ˈdem.oʊ/. For example, "democracy".
"cracy" becomes "democracy". It is a typical example of the demo- prefix.
un-, re-, pre-, dis-, over-, in-... every beginning you need to unlock thousands of English words at once.