PARA-

The term 'para-' in English is an affix borrowed from Greek, directly or via Latin, where it is mostly used as a prefix. Its most common meaning is "similar to" or "near to."
In Greek παρά (''para'') means "beside," "with," or "alongside," such as in paragraph. In Latin, ''para'' means "against," "counter," "outside," or beyond. For example, ''parapluie'' in French means "counter-rain"–an umbrella

Contents

Meanings within certain fields

Use as a prefix

Proper nouns

Meanings within certain fields

★ In medicine, the prefix "para" is used to describe the number of times a woman has given birth: for example, a woman who has given birth once is described as ''para 1'' or ''primipara'', and a woman who has given birth several times is described as multiparous, or ''multipara'' for short. See also: gravida

★ In organic chemistry, ''para'' (along with ''ortho'' and ''meta'') is used to distinguish the three types of isomer of disubstituted benzenes; ''para'' indicates that the substituents are at locants 1 and 4. It is printed in italics, and is often abbreviated as ''p'' in compound names (for example, ''p''-xylene is short for ''para''-xylene)

★ In psychology and psychiatry, ''para'' is a prefix used to describe symptoms that mimic one disorder, that are occurring within another disorder, but not so severe as to be considered co-occurring or co-morbid (for example, para-borderline behavior in conjunction with complex post-traumatic stress disorder or a paraphilia)

★ In cyberculture—specifically the online roleplaying subculture—'para' is an abbreviation for paragraph, differentiating the type of writing that uses multiple complete sentences in paragraph form from asterisk roleplaying (ie,
★ walks into a bar
★ ).

Use as a prefix

★ Parable

★ Parabola

★ Parachute

★ Paradigm

★ Paradox

★ paraglider

★ Paragon

★ Paralegal

★ Paramedic

★ Paramilitary

★ Paranormal

★ Paraphilia

★ Parapsychology

★ Parasailing

★ Paratrooper

★ Paraconsistent logic

Proper nouns

★ Para-Ordnance

★ Paracelsus