tele

The prefix "tele-" comes from the Greek word tēle, meaning "far" or "distant." It is a small but important part of many English words, usually suggesting distance, remote action, or communication across space.

You probably see "tele-" most often in words like "telephone," which was made for sending voices over long distances, and "television," which brings images and sounds from faraway places into your home. The same idea appears in "telescope," a tool for looking at very distant objects, and in "telecommunications," the sending of information across distance.

Other examples follow the same pattern. "Telemarketing" means selling to people from a distance, usually by phone, and "telecommuting" means working away from a central office by using technology. Even words such as "telepathy" or "telekinesis" keep the same basic idea of something happening across a distance.

It is helpful not to confuse this "tele-" with the Greek root telos, which means "end" or "purpose." That different root appears in words such as "teleology." In everyday English, however, "tele-" usually points to distance and remote connection.

So when you pick up the phone, watch TV, or hear about telecommunications, you are seeing the same old idea at work: something far away being reached, seen, or connected.