Prefix Meaning
/ˈpɹiːfɪks/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounSomething placed before another
nounSomething placed before another, 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.
Sentence Examples
The dialing prefix for Bulgaria is +359.
Relationship through marriage is indicated by the prefix "bo".
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
None
Antonyms:
CEFR Practice Quiz
Adding the English ____ 'un-' to 'happy' creates the word 'unhappy'.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ 'un-' is added to the beginning of a word to give it a negative or opposite meaning.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Late Latin praefīxum, from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“to (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “to fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“to fix”, “to fasten”, “to affix”)), equivalent to pre- + -fix. Doublet of the archaic synonym prefixum.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The chosen prefixes won the vote in part because they start with the only two letters left in the alphabet that are not already used in measurement. The b for “bronto” is already used for bytes and h for “hella” is used for hecto, the prefix for 100."
— 2022 November 18, Ian Sample, “Earth weighs in at six ronnagrams as new prefixes picked for big and small”, in The Guardian:
"But the danger was, that a man can hardly prefix any certaine limits unto his desire[…]."
— 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 40, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
"It is important to realize that pregivenness or prefixing is a kind of anteriority that does its work in the present; subjects and meanings in part emerge in enuciative co-constitutive moments."
— 2002, Thomas R. West, Signs of Struggle, page 23:
"For the classical ranks, he says, were taken from the nomenclature of the family system (indeed, they are kinship terms as well as political ones), and this arrangement was confused and inelegant. But the Taiping terms are all prefixed with 'T’ien' [translating 天 (Tiān)]—the capital is T’ien-ching [translating 天京 (Tiānjīng)], soldiers are T’ien-ping [translating 天兵], officials are T’ien-kuan [translating 天官]—for the T’ien-wang’s [translating 天王 (Tiānwáng)] authority derives from the T’ien-fu [translating 天父 (Tiānfù)]."
— 1964, Joseph R. Levenson, “Taipings Storm the Confucian Heaven”, in Confucian China and Its Modern Fate, volume 2, University of California Press, →OCLC, page 104:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Adding the English ____ 'un-' to 'happy' creates the word 'unhappy'.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The ____ 'un-' is added to the beginning of a word to give it a negative or opposite meaning.