Comprehensive list of prefixes and suffixes with their meanings

Have you ever wonder what those prefixes and suffixes we link up to words actually mean?

Native English speakers use these letters that go before and after words all day long, usually without a thought to their definitions. But we do use them for a reason: they alter the meaning of the word.

For instance, if someone is being careless, a native English speaker would be quick to say, “Hey, stop acting carelessly,” without hesitating to recall that the suffix –ly means “in the matter of.”

But, oh those poor English learners. It takes time to memorize all of our prefixes and suffixes and learn which to attach to what word. (A unicycle is quite different from a tricycle, you know.) It also doesn’t help that English, being that it is the bastard child of multiple European languages, adopted its prefixes and suffixes from Latin, Greek, and Old French.

In any case, we are right here.

To brush up on your skills, below is a collection of prefixes and suffixes and their meanings.

Prefix	Meaning	Example
a-	not	atypical
anti-	against	antifascist
bi-	two	biannual
counter-	against, opposite	counterfeit
de-	remove, reverse	deregulate
dis-	opposite, reverse, not	disagree
extra-	beyond, outside	extraterrestrial
fore-	before	forefather
in-	not	invisible
inter-	between	intermingle
mal-	bad	maltreatment
mis-	not, wrong	miscomprehend
neo-	new	neoconservative
non-	not	nonstarter
over-	excessive	overspend
post-	after	postscript
pre-	before	precolonial
proto-	first, primitive	prototype
re-	repeat	reread
sub-	under	submarine
tele-	distant	teleport
trans-	across	transcontinental
tri-	three	tricycle
un-	remove, reverse	untie
uni-	one	unilateral

 

Suffix	Meaning	Example
-able	capable of	inflatable
-ant	type of person	assistant
-athon	long-lasting	marathon
-cide	killing	infanticide
-dom	state of being	freedom
-er	doer of an action	worker
-ery	type of work	bakery
-ess	female of	heiress
-esque	reminiscent of	picturesque
-ette	small version of	kitchenette
-fest	indulgence in	chatfest
-fy	to make	electrify
-hood	state, quality	childhood
-ible	ability	reliable
-ish	a little	squeamish
-ism	condition or doctrine	feminism
-ist	type of person	florist
-less	without	penniless
-ly	in a manner of	quickly
-ous	full of	joyous
-wash	changing the appearance of	whitewash