prefix

[ noun pree-fiks; verb pree-fiks pree-fiks ]

noun

1. Grammar. an affix placed before a word, base, or another prefix to modify a term's meaning, as by making the term negative, as un- in unkind, by signaling repetition, as re- in reinvent, or by indicating support, as pro- in proabolition. Compatible prefixes can work together, as un- and re- in unrefundable.
2. something prefixed, as a title before a person's name:

   She uses the prefix “Ms.” rather than "Mrs."

verb (used with object)

1. to fix or put before or in front:

   to prefix an impressive title to one's name.

2. Grammar. to add as a prefix.
3. to fix, settle, or determine beforehand:

   If you call a taxi, the rate to the airport will be prefixed.

4. Biology. to apply the first of two fixatives to.

prefix

/ priːˈfɪks-; priːˈfɪkʃən; ˈpriːfɪksəl /

noun

1. grammar an affix that precedes the stem to which it is attached, as for example un- in unhappy Compare suffix
2. something coming or placed before

verb

1. to put or place before
2. grammar to add (a morpheme) as a prefix to the beginning of a word

prefix

1. Letters placed in front of a word to form a new word: “ tri monthly,” “ semi monthly,” “ bi lingual,” “ multi lingual,” “ ad dress,” “ re dress,” “ pre date,” “ post date.” ( Compare suffix .)

Grammar Note

A prefix is one kind of affix. An affix is an element that, although not a word itself, can be bound to a word, or to the base or stem of a word, to form a derivative with a related meaning. Entire families of related words can be derived from an existing word in this way. Although linguists sometimes divide the subject more finely, there are essentially three kinds of affix —the prefix, attached to the beginning (as un- in unconscious ), the infix, inserted in the middle, and the suffix, tacked on at the end (as -ness, in consciousness ). Note the lack of an example for infix. Standard English—unlike some other languages—does not use infixes, unless we count isolated instances of tmesis, where instead of an affix, an entire word is inserted, as in the playful “abso-bloomin'-lutely” in the lyrics of “Wouldn't It Be Loverly?”—a song from the musical My Fair Lady. (“Bloomin'” is probably a euphemism; other tmetic insertions are more often than not obscene.) But one-shot nonce words such as “abso-bloomin'-lutely” are neither added to the language nor found in standard dictionaries of English. On the other hand, both prefixes and suffixes are highly productive derivational forms, constantly in use to form new English words. A few of the most productive English prefixes are anti-, non-, pre-, re-, sub-, and un-. They are so common that some print dictionaries show simple lists, without definitions, of words that have been formed with them—taking it for granted that their meanings are obvious. Here at Dictionary.com, however, such terms, when not given entries and definitions of their own, are shown with other related forms at the bottom of the entry for the word on which the derivative is based. Thus a query for unacetic will take you automatically to acetic, helping you to understand your queried word without having to look up its bits and pieces separately. The grammatical term prefix itself has the prefix pre-; in this case, pre- means “before; preceding” and one meaning of fix is “to attach or place.” A word can have more than one prefix, like un- and re- in unremarkable. And a prefix can be used in combination with one or more suffixes. A simple example is reactivate, which has the prefix re- “again” added to the verb activate. Activate, in turn, is composed of the adjective active “engaged in action” and the suffix -ate, used to form verbs. Activate means “to make something active; cause it to function.” To reactivate is to do this again. But we must exercise some care in our analysis of words that are new to us; a casual glance at word formations may be deceptive. For example, to capitulate is “to surrender.” But recapitulate does not mean “to surrender again.” It means “to summarize.” In addition, some prefixes have more than one meaning. For example, if you look up un- in Dictionary.com, you'll find two entries. The first, un- ¹, means “not” (as in unafraid and unsettled ), the second, un- ², reverses the meaning of the verb it is attached to, as in unzip or in the social media term unfriend. But the most common problem with words formed with prefixes is determining whether or not to hyphenate between the prefix and the base word. Luckily, there are some guidelines. In general, there is no hyphen ( nonstarter, postcranial, unemployment, antievolution ). However, hyphenating is mandatory when the prefix is followed by a capital letter ( anti-Nazi, pre-Columbian ). We also hyphenate when a prefix that ends in a or i precedes a word starting with the same letter ( ultra-abysmal, anti-inflation ). However, words formed with prefixes ending in e or o followed by the same letter are in a state of flux ( cooperate and co-operate are variants, as are preeminent and pre-eminent ), but the solid form is increasingly more frequent. At the same time, certain words must be hyphenated to avoid ambiguity or misreading. re-sign (to sign again) is different from resign (to give up an office or position), and re-ink (to apply ink again) would look like some strange one-syllable word if spelled reink. But the easiest rule to remember may be this: when you are not sure whether to hyphenate a particular word, it is best to look it up.

Derived Forms

• prefixion, noun
• prefixal, adjective
• ˈprefixally, adverb

Other Words From

• pre·fixa·ble adjective
• pre·fix·al [pree, -fik-s, uh, l, pree-, fik, -], adjective
• prefix·al·ly adverb
• pre·fix·ion [pree-, fik, -sh, uh, n], noun
• un·prefix·al adjective
• un·prefix·al·ly adverb
• un·prefixed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of prefix¹

First recorded in 1375–1425 for verb; 1640–50 for noun; late Middle English verb prefixen, prefyxe, from Middle French prefixer, from Latin praefixus, past participle of praefīgere “to set up in front”; English noun praefix, prefix, from New Latin praefixum, neuter of praefixus; pre-, fix

Example Sentences

Mohamed added the Arabic "Al" prefix to his surname some time in the 1970s.

From BBC

Mr Bijoor suggests a better strategy would have been to operate Air India separately for five years, focusing on improving service standards, while maintaining Vistara as a distinct brand with Air India prefixed to it.

From BBC

She closely reads passages from their textbooks, breaks apart prefixes and suffixes and identifies root words.

From Los Angeles Times

The conference handed out call-letter prefixes — C for Canada, X for Mexico, F for France, and so on.

From Los Angeles Times

The human rights center disclosed in its 2019 report that it used the federally assigned prefix “RPN-” for “repatriate” to plug information into free flight-tracking websites and obtain a plane’s tail number and ownership.

From Seattle Times

More About Prefix

What is a prefix?

A prefix is a type of affix that appears at the beginning of a word and modifies its meaning, such as the re– in redo.

An affix is a word element that is added to the base of a word to create a new word. A prefix comes at the beginning of the word.

Some of the most common prefixes are ones that change a word with a positive meaning into one with a negative meaning, such as un-, in-, and dis-. For example, when we add un– to acceptable, we get the word unacceptable, which means not acceptable.

When attaching a prefix to a word, the spelling of the original word doesn’t change, even if it creates a double letter, as in irreplaceable and preexist. However, words that would have a double a or i are often hyphenated, as in ultra-aware and anti-inflammatory.

When we add a prefix to a capitalized word, we also use a hyphen, as in pre-Rome and non-French. The prefixes self– and ex– (meaning former) also use hyphens, as in self-interest and ex-wife.

Finally, hyphens are used to prevent confusion if a prefix would cause a word to resemble another word with a different meaning. For example, re-tread means to tread again, while retread means to put a new tread on a tire.

Why is prefix important?

The first records of the term prefix as a noun come from around 1640. It ultimately comes from the Latin praefixus, the past participle of the verb praefīgere, meaning “to set up in front.” Prefixes are always placed in front of words to alter their meanings.

Prefixes are one of the three types of affixes. The other major affix used in English is the suffix, which is placed at the end of a word, as with –ly in kindly. The third type of affix is called an infix and is placed in the middle of a word. Infixes are not used in Standard English, though they are used in other languages. Infixes are occasionally used in casual English for emphasis, as Eliza Doolittle does in My Fair Lady with abso-bloomin-lutely.

Sometimes, a word can have multiple prefixes if they are compatible with each other, such as unremarkable (un– and re-) and rediscount (re– and dis-). Words can also have both a prefix and a suffix or multiples of each, as in the word antidisestablishmentarianism (anti-, dis-, –ment, –arian, –ism).

Did you know … ?

Interestingly, the word prefix itself has a prefix in it. Pre– means “before.” The older verb use of prefix means “to fix before” or “to fix beforehand.”

What are real-life examples of prefix?

There are lots of prefixes in English. The following table gives examples of just some prefixes and words that contain them.

mis-: wrong, incorrect	misunderstand, misremember
intro-: within, inwardly	introvert, introspect
syn-: together	synchronize, syndrome
over-: too much, excess	overestimate, overcharge
anti-: opposed to, against	antisocial, antigovernment

 

Many of the words we use have prefixes, and we sometimes talk about them.

I joined a sorority, so I could use the word "social" without the prefix "anti."

— Skylar (@dj_sky_high_) August 23, 2013

Just discovered that you can unretweet. Seems like too many prefixes to be true, but it's true.

— Nick Arvin (@NickArvin) December 20, 2013

 

What other words are related to prefix?

• affix
• suffix
• infix
• hyphen
• modifier

Quiz yourself!

True or False?

A prefix comes at the beginning of a word and modifies the word’s meaning.