List of English suffixes

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This is an incomplete list of suffixes in English. Note that this list includes only derivational suffixes (which form new words, often of a different part of speech) and suffixes which serve to mark the part of speech. It does not include the inflectional suffixes which only produce new forms of a word without changing the part of speech, eg -s for the plural of nouns.

Suffix	Part of speech	Meaning	Examples	Effect on word stress
	adj	capable, can do	, , comfortable	Neutral
-ably	adv		notably, fashionably	Neutral
	noun	group	triad, monad
	noun		lemonade, accolade, blockade	Stressed suffix
	noun	forming a noun	marriage, mileage, garage	Neutral
	noun	leading	pedagogy, demagogy	Stressed suffix
	adj	aspect of	nominal, focal, (compare -ality)	Neutral
	noun	abstract noun	refusal, appraisal	Neutral
	noun	property (aspect, behaviour, condition) of	proportionality, sexuality (see -al and -ity)	Stressed suffix
-an	adj		urban	Neutral
-an	adj, noun		republican, Roman, veteran	Neutral
-ance	noun		relevance, annoyance, repentance	Neutral
-ancy	noun		pregnancy, redundancy, vacancy	Neutral
-ant	adj		relevant, dominant, pleasant	Neutral
-ant	noun		assitant, immigrant, inhabitant	Neutral
-ar	adj		linear, alveolar	Neutral
-ar	noun		beggar, liar	Neutral
-ard	noun		drunkard, coward, wizard, steward	Neutral
-ary	adj		ordinary, secondary, military	Neutral
-ary	noun		dictionary, library, seminary	Neutral
	noun	ruler, leader	monarch, tetrarch	Neutral
	noun	rule, leadership	gynarchy,	Neutral
-ate	adj		literate, desperate, fortunate	Neutral
-ate	noun		certificate, advocate	Neutral
-ate	verb		concentrate, oscillate	Neutral
	noun	sporting event	pentathlon, decathlon	Stressed suffix
	noun	state or concept of	invitation, pronunciation, starvation	Stressed suffix
	noun	from verb with -ate, state or concept of	concentration, oscillation, narration	Stressed suffix
-ative	adj		talkative, lucrative, affirmative	Neutral
-atory	noun		laboratory, conversatory
-bound	adv	heading in the direction of	inbound, outbound, citybound
, ,	noun	body cavity	or mucocoele
	noun	tumor, hernia	hydatidocele
	noun	puncturing	amniocentesis, rachicentesis
	adj	relating to the head	anencephaly, macrocephaly
	noun	small grainlike structure	mitochondrion
	noun	murder, killing agent	suicide, vespacide, regicide, fratricide	Neutral
	noun	practice	atrocity
	noun	expressing the quality of an adjective	diplomacy, literacy, idiocy	Neutral
	noun	circle, cycle, unit of radio frequency	epicycle, hydrocycle	Neutral
	noun	state or condition of	freedom, boredom, kingdom	Neutral
,	noun	stretching out	brochiectasis, telangiectasia
	noun	surgical removal	laryngectomy, vasectomy	Stressed suffix
-ed	adj		bored, tiled	Neutral
	noun	changes verb to a noun (the object of that verb)	employee, referee, payee	Stressed suffix
-eer	adj		engineer, overseer	Stressed suffix
	noun	linguistic unit	lexeme, phoneme, morpheme
	noun	blood condition	leukemia, anaemia	Stressed suffix
-en	adj		golden, wooden, written, frozen	Neutral
-en	verb		lessen, deafen, frighten	Neutral
	noun	cellular tissue	mesenchyma, karyenchyma
-ence	noun		independence, violence, absence	Neutral
-ency	noun		frequency, clemency, consistency	Neutral
-ent	adj		different, excellent, independent	Neutral
-ent	noun		resident, regent, superintendent	Neutral
-eous	adj		courteous	Neutral
	noun	changes verb to noun (the subject of that verb, see also -or)	write, writer	Neutral
	noun	work	energy, synergy
-ern	adj	direction	western, northern	Neutral
-ery	noun		slavery, machinery, nunnery	Neutral
-ese	adj, noun	nationality, language	Chinese, Lebanese, Portuguese	Stressed suffix
	adj	in the style of	Pythonesque, Romanesque, picturesque	Stressed suffix
	noun	female	actress, waitress, stewardess, priestess	Neutral
,	noun	sensation, feeling	synesthesia, kinesthesis	Stressed suffix
-etic	adj		energetic, sympathetic, frenetic
-ette	noun	small ~	diskette, statuette, usherette	Stressed suffix
-fare	noun	how things are going / coming along	welfare, fanfare, warfare	Stressed suffix
	adj	full of, having some or much	,	Neutral
-gate	noun	a scandal, often political (back-formed from the Watergate scandal)	Watergate, nipplegate	Neutral
	noun	knowing	prognosis, diagnosis	Stressed suffix
	noun	angle	polygon, pentagon	Neutral
		noun	adjective form of only 2 or 3 nouns in the English language	angry, hungry	Neutral
	noun	seat, face	icosahedron, tetrahedron	Stressed suffix
	adj	love, addiction	alcoholic, workaholic	Stressed suffix
	noun	state/condition of, a group sharing characteristics	brotherhood, adulthood, falsehood	Neutral
-ia	noun	abnormal state	mania, apraxia, dementia, dysarthria	Stress on previous syllable
-iable	adj		sociable	Stress on previous syllable
-ial	adj		special, filial, remedial	Stress on previous syllable
-ian	adj		mammalian	Stress on previous syllable
-ian	adj, noun		Brazilian, Christian	Stress on previous syllable
-ian	noun		librarian, barbarian, physician	Stress on previous syllable
-iant	adj		deviant, defiant	Stress on previous syllable
-iary	adj		tertiary	Stress on previous syllable
-iate	verb		asphyxiate, deviate	Stress on previous syllable
	adj	capable, can do (same as -able)	, ,
-ibly	adv		incredibly, responsibly, terribly	Stress on previous syllable
	adj	(adjective)	neurotic, electronic, historic	Stress on previous syllable
-ical	adj		historical, phonological, economical	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	the study of	Physics,Aerodynamics,Forensics, economics	Stress on previous syllable
	adj	(categorical) property (aspect) of	, tepid, candid, fervid (compare -al)
-iency	noun		expedieny	Stress on previous syllable
-ient	adj		salient, sentient, expedient	Stress on previous syllable
-ier	noun		cashier, financier, gondolier	Stress on previous syllable
,	verb	to become, make	clarify, specify, ,	Stress on previous syllable
-ile	adj		tactile, facile, volatile	Neutral
		large numbers	million, billion
-ious	adj		delicious, ambitious, religious, vivacious	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	noun from verb, in the process of	doing, acting	Neutral
	noun		bedding, stuffing, roofing	Neutral
-ion	noun		action, companion
	adj	adjective from noun; sort of; approximately	foolish, selfish, ,	Stress on previous syllable
	adj, noun	nationality, language	Spanish, Turkish, English	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	doctrine, act, practice, condition	Protestantism, alcoholism, Buddhism, southernism	Neutral
	noun	person	dentist, socialist, cellist	Neutral
		adept	fashionista
-ite	noun	member of a group	socialite, Carmelite	Neutral
	noun	disease, inflammation	hepatitis, gingivitis	Stressed suffix
-itive	adj		sensitive	Neutral
	noun		attitude, gratitude, Beatitude	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	expressing state or condition	normality, formality, banality	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	metallic element (exception: helium)	sodium, Calcium	Stress on previous syllable
	adj	make the noun an adjective	, , passive	Neutral
-ization/-isation	noun		organization/organisation, categorization/categorisation	Neutral
/	verb	to cause, to be, to become	/, /	Neutral
-izzle		used for hip hop slang	Americizzle
	noun	movement (ability thereof)	telekinesis
	adj	lack of	, , careless	Neutral
	noun	diminutive, or denoting a relation to some part of the body	ringlet, hamlet, anklet	Neutral
-like	adj	having the qualities of	childlike	Neutral
	noun	smaller, younger, cuter or weaker version of the noun root OR sharing an identity or quality of the noun root (e.g. as a follower)	darling, duckling, earthling, sapling	Neutral
	adj	-like, having the attributes of	, monthly	Neutral
	adv	-like, having the attributes of		Neutral
	noun	person	fireman, statesman	Neutral
	noun	divination by	crystallomancy, bibliomancy, necromancy	Neutral
	noun	an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action	kleptomania, megalomania, mythomania	Stressed suffix
-ment	noun	abstract noun	movement, amazement, government	Neutral
	noun	measuring device	barometer, thermometer
	noun	measure	symmetry, geometry, isometry
-mony	noun		testimony, ceremony	Neutral
	noun	form	isomorphism, homomorphism
-most	adj		utmost, innermost	Neutral
-ness	noun	abstract noun	kindness, ruthlessness, darkness	Neutral
	noun	Slavic origin; corresponds to "-er"	otkaznik, beatnik
	noun	system of government	kakistocracy, democracy, androcracy	Stressed suffix
	noun	writing, description	ideogram	Stressed suffix
	noun	study of	stenography, geography, photography	Stressed suffix
	adj	resembling	solenoid, hominoid
	noun	resembling	planetoid
	noun	one who studies a scientific subject	archaeologist	Stressed suffix
		study, science	biology, psychology, planetology	Stressed suffix
	noun	subject of an	genome
	noun	study of rules	proteomics, economics	Stressed suffix
	noun	knowledge of	astronomy	Stressed suffix
	noun	name, word	antonym, consonym, heteronym
-opsy	noun	examination	autopsy, biopsy
	noun	changes verb to noun (see also -er), person	actor, governor	Neutral
or -our	noun		candor, fervour, color
-ory	adj		auditory, sensory	Neutral
	noun		history, repository
	adj	full of, like, given to; carbohydrates, protein derivatives	verbose; globose
	noun	process, action, formation, diseased condition	mitosis, osmosis, ostosis, psychosis
	adj	adjectival suffix	, disastrous, nervous	Neutral
,	noun	eating	monophagy
	noun	attraction	hemophilia
	noun	fear	acrophobia, mysophobia
	noun, adj	sound, audio; speaker of a language	telephone, homophone; Anglophone	Neutral
	noun	plant, used in botany to create terms which categorise plants based on their life-history, growth-form or ecological preferences	therophyte, halophyte
	noun	referring to city or big area	Metropolis, Indianapolis
	noun	knowing	omniscience, prescience, conscience
	noun	from Greek skopos, view; instrument for viewing and observing spaces	microscope, telescope, kaleidoscope, periscope
	noun	written	manuscript, transcript
	noun	abstract noun, state of being	friendship, relationship, dictatorship	Neutral
-sion	noun	noun that has been altered from a process	decision, illusion	Stress on previous syllable
-some	adj		tiresome, awesome, fulsome	Stress on previous syllable
	noun	land, country	Afghanistan
	noun	person	youngster, gangster	Neutral
-t	adj		burnt, spoilt	Neutral
, -eth	adj	ordinal number	tenth, millionth, twentieth
	noun	forming a noun	growth, health, depth, strength
-tion	noun	noun that has been altered from a process	evaporation, introduction	Stress on previous syllable
,	noun	part or segment	dermatome
	noun	to turn	phototropism
-ty	noun		certainty, loyalty	Neutral
-uary	noun		sanctuary, mortuary
-ulent	adj		turbulent, fraudulent
-uous	adj		tempestuous, unctuous, sensuous	Neutral
-ure	noun		failure, exposure, temperature	Neutral
	noun	inflammation
	noun	city, town from French	Nashville
,	noun / adj	to devour	carnivore, herbivore
or	adj, adv	direction	, ,	Neutral
	noun	software	hardware, software, freeware
	adj		sideways, longways	Neutral
	adj	direction	, lengthwise	Neutral
	noun	person who makes	playwright, wheelwright, shipwright
	adj	having the quality of, inclined to	, , chewy	Neutral

See also

• Classical compound
• List of generic forms in British place names
• List of English prefixes
• List of medical suffixes
• [Biology prefixes and suffixes]
• [Template]

External links

• [Acsmedicalbilling.com Medwords] (PDF document)

 

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