prefix
noun · verb
Simple meaning
An affix that is added in front of the word.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
preefiksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɹifɪks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
grammarlinguistic morphology
An affix that is added in front of the word
A title added to a person's name, such as Mr. or Dr.
Something placed before another
grammarlinguistic morphology
A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning, for example as, pre- in prefix, con- in conjure, re- in reheat, etc.
verb
transitive
To put or fix before, or at the beginning of something; to place at the start.
transitive
To determine beforehand; to set in advance.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An affix that is added in front of the word
Used this way, prefix is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use prefix
- “The word 'unhappy' has 'un-' as its prefix.”
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Antonyms
Sense: affix that is added in front of the word
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.