Questions tagged [prefixes]

A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word

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Using 'Quasi-' as prefix [closed]

Which spelling is correct? Quasi-stationary Quasi-Stationary Quasi stationary
s28's user avatar
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What do we use ‘Ms.’ or ‘Mrs.’ when we write about a person whose marital status we don’t know? [duplicate]

Also, What if we have a general idea about the the marital status of a person. Especially, in the case of ‘Mrs.’, if we seem to have a good idea about the marital status of a woman, can we write ‘Mrs.’...
Ridam Sharma's user avatar
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What is similar to ex- pattern to refer to the future

A normal way to refer to the next president is to call him/her future/next president or president-elect (in case of selecting through an election). However, I'm looking for a pattern to refer to that ...
Eilia's user avatar
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Prefix for "above/beyond" when referring to scale

If I wanted to refer to a spatial scale relatively smaller than a kilometer, I might say "sub-kilometer" scale. However, what is the proper prefix for describing a spatial scale relatively ...
theforestecologist's user avatar
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4 answers
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Origin of prefix "Mc" McDonalds or Monty Python?

The "Mc" prefix in the USA is used in, for "McMansion" to mean, I think, characterless and identical (as in McDonald's restaurants which I think were the first really big chain ...
releseabe's user avatar
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Why does the pronunciation of the prefix en- vary so much?

I want to know the reason for all the different pronunciations of the prefix en- in English words. For example, words like enable, enlarge and endure have the prefix pronounced as /ɪn/, at least ...
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Is the word subprocedure; sub-procedure; or sub procedure correct? [duplicate]

I want to use the single word variety, but my spellchecker is telling me the split two words is correct. This looks wrong to me, is there a standard for this type of word and "prefix"?
Jay's user avatar
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Unlike in DISassemble, why doesn't the DIS- in 'DISsemble' mean 'undo or reverse'?

https://www.wordsmyth.net/blog/2020/01/dissemble-2 baffles me. Dis*\assemble is a derivation of the verb “assemble.” The prefix “dis-” means “to undo or reverse” the action denoted by the base, that ...
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3 answers
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Is "inauthentic" inauthentic?

"Inauthentic" is more commonly used than "unauthentic", at least these days, but they are both valid. Several sources (World Wide Words for example) suggest what prefix the ...
desmo's user avatar
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Opposite prefix for de-, with regard to the words despection, circumspection, and respect

I'm looking for the proper prefix for what kind of "spectating" would make an etymologically correct connotation towards "looking up", where despection and "despising" is ...
Phil Physics's user avatar
18 votes
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If "in-" forms antonyms, why is "invaluable" not the opposite of "valuable"?

I'm not an native speaker. Most of the time when I hear a word that starts with "in-" I think of an opposite, a negation: visible – invisible valid – invalid dependent – independent But I ...
KWriter's user avatar
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How to know if the beginning of a word is a true prefix

In English, I think it is fairly obvious when some words have a prefix. For example, recall, return, remove, superconductor, etc. You can actually separate the prefix from the root word and have a ...
meepyer's user avatar
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Alternate formulations for "four-month anniversary" (one-third of a year)

Looking for alternate formulations to four-month anniversary, a formulation that would highlight the fact that one third of a year has gone by since a certain date. For six months there is the word ...
zx81's user avatar
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Can a stem be used with differing prefixes, such as in "pre- and suffixes"?

Does the English language allow for reusing a word stem in the context of multiple prefixes? E.g.: pre- and suffixes both need a stem sur- and interfaces The machine was dis- and reassembled If so,...
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What are the capitalisation rules for prefixes in parentheses?

If you'd like to write (co)promotor at the beginning of a sentence, should both 'co' and 'promotor' be capitalised? For example, is it "(Co)Promotors are advised to ..."? Or is there another ...
Elianna's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
4k views

Are there any class-changing prefixes in English?

Whenever I do a Google search about affixes, I find information like 'Prefixes usually do not change the class of the base word, but suffixes usually do change the class of the word' (UEfAP). As I ...
Alim Karaçay's user avatar
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1 answer
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Does the spelling of suffixes change in some cases like prefixes?

I know that prefixes never change the spelling of the stem. However, their spelling changes in some cases. For example: well+come = welcome (not wellcome) all+ways = always (not allways) in+regular =...
Alim Karaçay's user avatar
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why "monatomic" and not "monoatomic"?

"Mono" means singular, and "atomic" stands for the atom. So combining them will give a single atom - "monatomic". But why is this so? Why can't it be "monoatomic&...
DialFrost's user avatar
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What's a word for marrying someone of similar status?

Hypergamy is an action of marrying someone of a higher socio-economic class while hypogamy is doing the same for a person of lower socio-economic class. What is it called, if you marry someone of a ...
Kun.tito's user avatar
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1 answer
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Prefix in word 'elongation' [closed]

I just wondered if there is a e- prefix. For example to form the word elongation having as root the word long .
Tarık Ayaz's user avatar
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1 answer
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Prefixed words in English whose abbreviations skip the prefixes

I was writing an article about certain abbreviations in German. Two of the terms being abbreviated were Verschmelzungsfunktion and Vertauschungsfunktion. Abbreviating both of them as V would have ...
Mark Dominus's user avatar
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Why do so many prefixes end with -o? (Visio, linguo) [closed]

At first I was wondering about “Deleuzoguattarian” but then I saw the Wiktionary list: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Category:English_prefixes which is quite striking. The answers in Origin of ...
jan's user avatar
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Conference and difference opposites? [closed]

I am reading a book where diffidence and confidence were juxtaposed. In a later sentence, I noticed the word difference also has this same dif- prefix that diffidence does. Does it make sense to ...
Stefan Wullems's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
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Is there a word category for a certain kind of words beginning with 'a-'? [duplicate]

A few words beginning with an a came up to my mind recently because their structure is similar in the way they convey their meaning. Those words are like: atop, alight; afloat, afresh, anew, asleep, ...
ParaH2's user avatar
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What's the Scottish equivalent of the prefix "Anglo-"?

Scotch gets misused and I don't want to join those ranks if it's incorrect. Celtic seems to cover a wider area. Pictish seems to be specific to the Northeast. Gaelic I always assume to be Irish. All ...
Mike's user avatar
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Which of the two sounds more natural: corestrict or correstrict?

In mathematics, one uses the prefix co- to denote something that's dual to an already known object, for instance: limit -> colimit, basis -> cobasis, cycle -> cocycle, tangent -> cotagent, ...
marmistrz's user avatar
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Prefixes hyphenated or spaced

As a professional typographer and proofreader (I know; rare and disappearing breeds, especially for being both at the same time! And yes, I’m also a graphic designer), I tend to follow what are called ...
Pierre Paquette's user avatar
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Use of "a-" before words, not the indefinite article [duplicate]

Sometimes I've found some words that start with an "a-" prefix, not the indefinite article. I think it's used to make the phrasing more euphonic and more "melodic", at least this ...
gRizzlyGR's user avatar
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If 'pre' is previous, 'post' is after, and 'peri' is current, what is "initiation"?

In chronology: pre-event, ?-event, peri-event, post-event Maybe "ini-event" from Latin "initium"?
Martin Es's user avatar
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what does to word 'crete' mean in English? [closed]

In my native language, words are created using 'Root Words' + 'Prefixes/suffixes'. Also the root words make sense for us. Is English the same? For example I think the word 'crete' is the root and 'dis,...
Aaron's user avatar
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Is it ever ac­cept­able to write slashes be­tween mul­ti­ple but sep­a­rate pre­fixes?

For ex­am­ple, can I get away with writing bio/tech­no­log­i­cal ad­vances have made? Even if this is or­tho­graph­i­cally ac­cept­able in one or another kind of writ­ten English, would it better for ...
200Ethan's user avatar
1 vote
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meaning of prefix "a" [duplicate]

While searching for an alternative synonym for the adjective starving, I found the word ahungered and I was intrigued by the use of the prefix a in this case. I looked up the etymology of the prefix a-...
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Difference between the prefixes "pre" and "ante"?

Thinking of the words "precedent" and "antecedent" led me to this question. They seem to mean almost exactly the same thing in their more general usages, but "antecedent" ...
Anon's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why do some words containing a form of “philia” have it at the beginning and some have it at the end?

There are words like “philosophy”, “philology”, “philanthropy”; these have a form of “philia” at the beginning. Why don't these words have it at the end? Also, there are words like “haemophilia”, “...
matj1's user avatar
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1 answer
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How far can one go in creating new words?

Apparently the word disturbingly exists, but undisturbingly doesn't. However, I felt it better served to convey my meaning and was sure that any reader would understand what I mean. I also put it ...
fev's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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palatization of y- from *ga-

Premises The common Proto-Germanic prefix *ga‑ affixed to past participles was reduced in Modern English, obscuring its historical participial morphology now beyond modern recognition, as seen for ...
vectory's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Hyphen between 2 words when prefix is in front of the 2 words

What's the correct way to put a prefix in front of something that's 2 or more words? Pre-Neolithic Revolution or pre-Neolithic-Revolution Pro-affirmative action or pro-affirmative-action Post-Civil ...
clickbait's user avatar
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1 answer
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Should we include the prefix Mrs. when we tell others our real name? [closed]

My question is so simple. We call a man with the prefix Mr. and a married woman with the prefix Mrs., followed by her husband's surname, right? Now, is it grammatically okay to include these prefixes ...
Fadli Sheikh's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
1k views

Nuancing the prefixes "meta-", "hyper-", and "super-". Any insight that'd help? [closed]

When detailing the definition of these prefixes, I'm usually faced with a deadlock as to which would fit the proper usage. Though, in general, I'd still like to understand each prefix's nuance to each ...
Marquise's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
2k views

"beginning" is to "prefix" as "end" is to "suffix" as "middle" is to... what?

The word "prefix" describes something affixed to the beginning of a word and the word "suffix" describes something affixed to the end of a word. What is the analog of these for ...
ubiquibacon's user avatar
1 vote
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Why is the "r" doubled in "arrhythmia"? [duplicate]

Why is the "r" doubled in "arrhythmia" relative to "rhythmia"? I'm guessing it's because English resists hyphenation of prefixes and suffixes ("a-rhythmia"), ...
Luke Hutchison's user avatar
43 votes
4 answers
7k views

Why is the prefix "Trans" shortened to "X"? [duplicate]

In technical literature as well as aircraft user interfaces where there is not enough space to write the whole word, the prefix "trans" is shortened to "x". Transmit -> Xmit ...
Artium's user avatar
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Do all "prefixes" can be use as "combining forms" or just some of them can be?

I wonder if all English prefixes can be used as "combining forms" or just some of them can be play role as "prefix" and combine with other words or affixes to form "compound forms". e.g "Chron-" ...
Masoud Moghaddam's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
254 views

Determing the lexical category of a word based on the affixes attached

I am currently taking a Linguistics course and am learning about affixes. Through reading the textbook and following the lectures, I have realized that certain prefixes and suffixes are attached to ...
AP_98's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
4k views

What prefix should I use to address individuals younger that 18 yrs?

Many summer programs/university applications require me to provide a prefix I would prefer to be called by. I always type "Mr.", but as I'm younger than 18, is this appropriate usage? Should I just ...
Saif Taher's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
671 views

What is the proper prefix meaning "bone" or "skeleton"?

There are many borrowed words from Greek and Latin that are used as prefixes in English. Examples: pyro- relating to fire, hydro- relating to water, geo- relating to the earth etc. What is the ...
user-2147482428's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
258 views

Opposite prefix for 'ethno-'

Is there one? A cursory Google search yielded none. My best guess would be something close to exic-; not that I can think of any relevant words in this context using that.
Suraj Sood's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
92 views

Numeral prefixes of tidal constituents [closed]

If tidal constituents with frequencies of one, two, three, and four cycles per day (respectively, periods of one, a half, a third, and a fourth of a day) were to be termed systematically based on ...
Felipe G. Nievinski's user avatar
45 votes
11 answers
13k views

Why is the 'anti' in 'anti-semitism'?

If 'ageism' is the prejudice or discrimination against aged persons, 'sexism' discrimination against a person's sex and 'racism' discrimination against someone's race, then why is not Semitism the ...
Nigel J's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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Is "aggr-" a prefix and what does it mean? [closed]

I'm not sure if "aggr-" is a prefix but I can see some words starting with it. like: Aggregate Aggressive Aggravate Aggrieve Aggrandize I'm here to ask if it has some meanings or they are all ...
Peyman's user avatar
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