Prefix

 ( Affixes ) 

A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed.

Prefixes, like other affixes, can be either , creating a new form of a word with the same basic meaning and same lexical category, or derivational, creating a new word with a new semantics meaning and sometimes also a different lexical category. Prefixes, like all affixes, are usually bound morphemes.

English language has no inflectional prefixes, using only for that purpose. Adding a prefix to the beginning of an English word changes it to a different word. For example, when the prefix un- is added to the word happy, it creates the word unhappy.

The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning "attach", in this case), and the prefix pre- (meaning "before"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.

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English language

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List of English derivational prefixes This is a fairly comprehensive, although not exhaustive, list of derivational prefixes in English. Depending on precisely how one defines a derivational prefix, some of the neoclassical combining forms may or may not qualify for inclusion in such a list. This list takes the broad view that acro- and auto- count as English derivational prefixes because they function the same way like that of prefixes such as over- and self- do.

As for , only the most common members of that class are included here. There is a large separate table covering them all at Numeral prefix > Table of number prefixes in English.

takes the form an- before ; see privative alpha
, "consisting of or occurring every two centuries" binomial, "two terms"	See number prefixes in English
takes the form con- before vowels
diatomic, "two atoms" dipole, "two poles"	See number prefixes in English
See number prefixes in English
See number prefixes in English
See hyper
ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
ig- (before gn- or n-), il- (before l-), im- (before b-, m-, or p-), in- (before most letters), or ir- (before r-)
See number prefixes in English
See number prefixes in English
Sometimes "all-" is used, especially in Asian English, where All-Union was a standard translation of the Russian word meaning "pan-USSR" or "USSR-wide", and "All-India" is a similar standard term in India, comparable to words such as national, nationwide, or federal (in the case of ).
See number prefixes in English
See number prefixes in English
By normative convention, always hyphenated (except for a few multiprefix compounds such as unselfconscious)
See number prefixes in English
See number prefixes in English

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Hyphenation The choice between hyphenation or solid styling for prefixes in English is covered at Hyphen > Prefixes and suffixes.

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Japanese language Commonly used prefixes in Japanese include o- and go-. They are used as part of the honorific system of speech, and are used as markers for politeness, showing respect for the person or thing they are affixed to, notably also being used euphemistically.

(2025). 9780415687393 . ISBN 9780415687393

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Bantu languages In the Bantu languages of Africa, which are agglutinating, the noun class is conveyed through prefixes, which is declension and agrees with all of its arguments accordingly.

(2025). 9780700711345, Routledge. ISBN 9780700711345

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Example from [[Luganda/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: l"> <hr class="us2411627114"> <span class="us3003804241 us1353177739">Example from [[Luganda">l">

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Example from [[Luganda

o-mu-

∅

a-ba-

o-mu-

e-mi-

e-ri-/CC-

a-ma-

e-ki-

e-bi-

e-N-

e-N-/zi-

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Navajo Verbs in the Navajo language are formed from a word stem and multiple affixes. For example, each verb requires one of four semivowel prefixes ( ∅, ł, d, l) to create a verb theme.

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Sunwar In the Sunwar language of Nepal, the prefix ma- म is used to create . It is the only verbal prefix in the language.

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Russian As a part of the formation of nouns, prefixes are less common in Russian than suffixes, but alter the meaning of a word.

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пред- and положение 'position' becomes предположение 'supposition'

пре- and образование 'formation (verb)' becomes преобразование 'transformation' T. Wade (2025). 9781405136396, Blackwell Publishers. . ISBN 9781405136396

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German

In German, derivatives formed with prefixes may be classified in two categories: those used with substantives and adjectives, and those used with verbs. For derivative substantives and adjectives, only two productive prefixes are generally addable to any substantive or adjective as of 1970: un-, which expresses negation (as in ungesund, from gesund), and ur-, which means "original, primitive" in substantives, and has an emphatic function in adjectives. ge-, on the other hand, expresses union or togetherness, but only in a closed group of words—it cannot simply be added to any noun or adjective.Cf. Chambers, W. Walker and Wilkie, John R. (1970) A Short History of the German Language, London: Methuen & Company, Ltd., p. 63

Verbal prefixes commonly in use are be-, ent-, er-, ge-, miss-, ver-, and zer- (see also Separable verb). be- expresses strengthening or generalization. ent- expresses negation. ge- indicates the completion of an action, which is why its most common use has become the forming of the past participle of verbs; ver- has an emphatic function, or it is used to turn a substantive or an adjective into a verb. In some cases, the prefix particle ent- (negation) can be considered the opposite of particle be-, while er- can be considered the opposite of ver-.

B. Roger Maylor (2002). 9789027230614, John Benjamins Publishing. . ISBN 9789027230614

The prefix er- usually indicates the successful completion of an action, and sometimes the conclusion means death.

Karl A. Schmidt (1974). 9780486230443, Courier Corporation. . ISBN 9780486230443

With fewer verbs, it indicates the beginning of an action. The prefix er- is also used to form verbs from adjectives (e.g. erkalten is equivalent to kalt werden which means "to get cold").

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See also

• Affix
• Suffix
• Privative
• Bound and unbound morphemes
• English prefix
• List of Greek and Latin roots in English
• substring#Prefix
• Metric prefix

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Works cited

• (2025). 9780814251799, Ohio State University Press. . ISBN 9780814251799

Categories: Affixes, Lexical Units, Linguistics Terminology