petr-

1. variant of petro- ¹ before a vowel:

   petrous.

Example Sentences

However, Czech President Petr Pavel – who has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine – said this week that part of Ukraine would probably remain “temporarily” occupied, possibly for years.

From BBC

The president of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, told the New York Times that Ukraine will have to be "realistic" about its prospects of recovering the areas in the east of the country which Russia has managed to gain over the last 31 months of war.

From BBC

Environment Minister Petr Hladik urged those in the worst-hit areas to prepare to leave their homes.

From BBC

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the country braced for "a tough weekend".

From BBC

LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, now owns nearly 15% of Harbour Energy.

From BBC

Words That Use petr-

What does petr- mean?

Petr– is a combining form used like a prefix meaning “rock” or “stone.” It is very rarely used in scientific terms.

Petr– comes from Greek pétra, meaning “rock.” Two Latin translations of pétra are lapis and saxum, both meaning “stone,” which are the roots of terms such as lapis lazuli and saxifrage, respectively. To learn more, check out our entries for both words.

What are variants of petr-?

When combined with words or word elements that begin with certain consonants, petr– becomes petri–. Another variant of petr– is petro–. Want to know more? Read our Words That Use petri– and petro– articles.

Examples of petr-

One example of the few words that feature the form petr– is petrous, a term from anatomy meaning “noting or pertaining to the hard dense portion of the temporal bone.” Petrous comes from Latin petrōsus, which features the equivalent of petr– in that language.

The petr– part of the word means “rock,” as we know. The suffix –ous means “possessing; full of.” Petrous literally translates to “full of rock.”

What are some words that use the combining form petr-?

• petrichor

What are some other forms that petr– may be commonly confused with?

• per-
• peri-
• peta-
• pro-

Not every word that begins with the exact letters petro– or petr-, such as petronel or petrel, is necessarily using the combining form petr– to denote “rock.” Learn why petrel is the name of a seabird at our entry for the word.

Break it down!

The term ichor comes from Greek mythology, in which it refers to a magical fluid that flows in the veins of the gods. With this in mind, what smell does petrichor literally refer to?