geo-

The Earth.

Greek gē, earth.

Words that refer to the Earth include geopolitics, politics with implications for the whole world, and geosynchronous, of an orbit for a satellite that keeps it apparently stationary over one point. Several sciences relate to the Earth, as in geography, geology, and geomorphology (the study of the physical features of the surface of the Earth and how they relate to its geology); these and others are the geosciences. Geometry literally means ‘earth measuring’. The idea of soil occurs in geophagy, the practice of eating it, and less obviously so in geomancy, which can refer to divination using signs derived from earth, such as by scattering soil.