Bases, stems, and roots are the main components of words, just like cells, atoms, and protons

are
the main components of matter.

In linguistics, the words "roots" is the core of the word. It is the morpheme that comprises the most
important part of the word. It is also the primary unit of the family of the same word. Keep in mind
that the root is mono-morphemic, or made of just one "chunk", or morpheme. Without the root, the
word would not have any meaning. If you take the root away, all that you have left is affixes either
before or after it. Such affixes do not have a lexical meaning on their own.

An example of a root is the word "act".

Now let's look at what is a stem and a base and apply them to the root "act" so that you can see how
they differ and interconnect to transform a lexical word altogether.

The stem occurs after affixes have been added to the root, for example:

Re-act

Re-act-ion

Hence a stem is a form to which affixes (prefixes or suffixes) have been added. It is important to
differentiate it from a root, because the root alone cannot be applied in discourse, whereas the stem
exists precisely to be applied to discourse.

A base is the same as a root except that the root has no lexical meaning while the base does: "to act"
is the infinitive of "act" and is structured with the base "act". In many words in our language, a word
can be all three: root, base, and stem: "deer". The difference  in their names lies on the way that
they are applied during discourse (stem, base) and whether, on their own, they have any lexical
meaning (stem, base) or no lexical meaning whatsoever (root).

An example of root, base and stem joined together is the word "refrigerator"

Latin root frīgerāre --> root; no meaning in English on its own; requires a change in spelling to affix
suffixes

refrigerāre --> Latin prefix + root, with no meaning in English of its own yet

re- + friger + -ate + -tor--> prefix + root + suffixes that now produce lexical meaning = stem; spelling
changes are required for suffixes.

The links included with the answer contain the Glossary of Linguistic Terminology for further
information

Determine the root, stem, base, and affixes (suffix and prefix) for the following words; what is the
category of the word form?:

1. jump: root, base, stem; verb (also noun)

2. refries: re- prefix; fry: root, base, -(e)s: suffix; re+fry: base, stem; verb

3. unhappyness: un- prefix; happy: root, base; ness: suffix; happy+ness: base; un+happy+ness:
base, stem; noun

4. candid: cand: root, base; -id: suffix; cand+id: base, stem; adjective.
 5. construction. con-: prefix; struc: root, base; -t: suffix; -ion: suffix; con+struc: base;
con+struc+t: base; con+sturc+t+ion: base, stem; noun.

When to Use the Term Stem: The term stem is quite unnecessary in many

classrooms, as all stems are bases. For this reason, teachers can always use the
term base instead of stem. However, the concept of stems is helpful in teaching
students about inflectional suffixes. Inflectional suffixes are different from derivational
affixes (derivational prefixes and derivational suffixes).
Word: reddest    Stem: red
Word: girls’    Stem: girl
Word: boats    Stem: boat
Word: preapproved    Stem: preapprove
Word: justifying    Stem: justify
Word: responded   Stem: respond
Word: unjustifiable    Stem: no stem
Word: kindness    Stem: no stem

Base / Base Word

Bauer says, “A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This
means that any root or any stem can be termed a base.”
In the table below, I use two labels to show how base and root relate to each other.
Sometimes a base is a root (marked    Base/Root), and sometimes it is not a
root (marked    Base).
To be clear, we can add a prefix or suffix to every base even if it already has a prefix
or suffix. Furthermore, if we can add a prefix or suffix to something, we can call it a
base.
Word: reread     Base/Root: read
Word: unhelpful     Base: helpful     Base/Root: help
Word: justifying     Base: justify     Base/Root: jus
Word: unreliable     Base: reliable     Base/Root: rely
Word: preponderance     Base: ponderance (uncommon) 
 Base/Root: ponder
Word: responded     Base: respond     Base/Root: spond
Word: preapproved     Base: preapprove     Base: approve 
 Base: approved     Base: proved     Base/Root: prove

Here is a table to help get you started in your word analysis studies related to root,
stem, and base.

 
 Root: Root:
Example Word Stem Base
Dependent Independent

1. undeniable  deny ** deny; deniable

2. reinvented reinvent ven/vent ven/vent; invent; reinvent

3. deforestation forest *** forest; forestation

4. interacted interact act * act; interact

5. demographics demographic demo graph * demo; graph; demographic

6. responding respond spond spond; respond

7. preserving preserve serv serv; preserve

8. hopefully hope hope; hopeful

Root, stem, base

Taken from: Bauer, Laurie (1983:20-21): English word-formation. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
‘Root’, ‘stem’ and ‘base’ are all terms used in the literature to designate that part of a
word that remains when all affixes have been removed.
A root is a form which is not further analysable, either in terms of derivational or
inflectional morphology. It is that part of word-form that remains when all inflectional
and derivational affixes have been removed. A root is the basic part always present
in a lexeme. In the form ‘untouchables’ the root is ‘touch’, to which first the suffix ‘-
able’, then the prefix ‘un-‘ and finally the suffix ‘-s’ have been added. In a compound
word like ‘wheelchair’ there are two roots, ‘wheel’ and ‘chair’.
A stem is of concern only when dealing with inflectional morphology.
In the form ‘untouchables’ the stem is ‘untouchable’, although in the form ‘touched’
the stem is ‘touch’; in the form ‘wheelchairs’ the stem is ‘wheelchair’, even though
the stem contains two roots.
A base is any form to which affixes of any kind can be added. This means that any
root or any stem can be termed a base, but the set of bases is not exhausted by the
union of the set of roots and the set of stems: a derivationally analysable form to
which derivational affixes are added can only be referred to as a base. That is,
‘touchable’ can act as a base for prefixation to give ‘untouchable’, but in this process
‘touchable’ could not be referred to as a root because it is analysable in terms of
derivational morphology, nor as a stem since it is not the adding of inflectional affixes
which is in question.