Browse dictionary
Showing 1-20 of 27 results in 27 entries
1. -aholic, suffix View full entry 1954
...Forming nouns (often humorous nonce-words) denoting a person who appears to be addicted to the thing, activity, etc., expressed by the first element, as computerholic, newsaholic, spendaholic...
2. -ary, suffix1 View full entry 1940
...adjs. repr. (or on analogy of) Latin -ārius ‘connected with, pertaining to’; as arbitrary, contrary, elementary, honorary, mercenary, necessary...
3. -cade, suffix View full entry 1936
...Taken by a false division of cavalcade and used in various Combs., as aquacadeaqua-, motorcade, etc., in the sense ‘a procession, a show’....
4. -eme, suffix View full entry 1953
...The termination of many names of significant or distinctive units of structure of some kind in the lexicon, grammar, and phonology of languages, e.g. grapheme, lexeme, morpheme...
5. -eroo, suffix View full entry 1964
...factitious slang suffix as in boozeroo, brusheroo (brush8b), flopperoo...
6. -etum, suffix View full entry 1905
...Appended to names of trees or other plants, to designate a collection or plantation of various species of a single genus or group of plants, as in Latin arboretumin ...
7. -ian, suffix View full entry 1930
...Repr. Latin -iān-us, i.e. an original or connecting vowel -i-, with suffix -ānus: see -an1a, ‘of or belonging to’. Formed by adding ...
8. -idine, suffix View full entry 1931
...Used to form the names of many organic compounds containing nitrogen which, with few exceptions (as guanidine), have molecules containing one or more rings; esp. amino derivatives of aromatic...
9. -in, suffix3 View full entry 1960
...in used as a suffix originally designating a communal act of protest by African Americans against racial segregation in the United States (cf. sit-in); subsequently indicating any group protest...
10. -ine, suffix5 View full entry 1928
...At first used unsystematically in forming names of extractive principles and chemical derivatives of various kinds; also, in the English names given early in the 19th century to the four elements ...
11. -ion, suffix4 View full entry 1930
...(Not productive in English.) Forming the names of plant alliances (alliance4d) from the names of their principal associations (association12)....
12. -ismus, suffix View full entry 1912
...Repr. Greek -ismus or Latin -ismus (see -ism), used similarly to -ism, indicating a typical condition or typical conduct, in nouns formed from proper...
13. -itis, suffix View full entry 1903
... Greek -ῖτις, properly forming the fem. of adjs. in -ίτης, but often used absolutely with a fem. n. understood, as in ἀσϕαλτῖτις (λίμνη) Lake Asphaltitis,...
14. -nik, suffix View full entry 1905
...Forming nouns (from adjectives and nouns) denoting a person (esp. an enthusiast) or thing involved in or associated with a specified thing or quality, often with humorous or pejorative connotations....
15. -orium, suffix View full entry 1925
...Forming nouns with the sense ‘establishment in which a specific activity is carried on’....
16. -oyl, suffix View full entry 1931
...Forming names of radicals, spec. acyl radicals, from names of the corresponding carboxylic acids ending in -ic or -oic, as fumaroyl, hexanoyl,...
17. -plex, suffix1 View full entry 1970
...A terminal element equivalent to English -fold, forming nouns and adjectives; spec. (orig. U.S.) with a numeral as first element, designating a building divided into...
18. -ski, suffix View full entry 1902
...A suffix appended to a word or phrase in humorous imitation of Russian. Cf. buttinsky...
19. -some, suffix4 View full entry 1921
...used with this sense, as in ecto-, trophosometropho-;used to form words denoting an intracellular particle, as in acrosome, chromosome, lysosome;used to repr. chromosome...
20. -speak, suffix View full entry 1949
...speak used, after Orwell's Newspeak and Oldspeak, as a substantival suffix (cf. speak1) to denote a particular variety of language or characteristic mode of...
