spectrum
a range of related colors or things
Root
- spec / spic: look or see
Other words with the spec / spic root
- circumspect: cautious and careful
- conspicuous: easy to notice or clearly visible
- inspection: careful looking or examination
- perspicacious: keenly perceptive
- perspicacity: keenness of understanding or insight
- specious: seemingly plausible but actually misleading
- spectacle: something striking to see
- spectacles: glasses used for seeing
Spectrum belongs to the seeing family: first an appearance now a visible range.
The students' answers fell across a wide spectrum of confidence.
Spectrum is familiar from color, but the useful root is seeing. A spectrum lets many differences become visible along one range.