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In linguistics, a 'prefix' is a type of affix that precedes the morphemes to which it can attach. Prefixes are ''bound morphemes'' (they cannot occur as independent words).
While most languages employ both prefixes and suffixes, prefixes are crosslinguistically less common. Some languages employ mostly suffixes and almost no prefixes at all.
The use of prefixes has been found to correlate statistically with other linguistic features, such as a verb-object word order and the use of prepositions.
Interestingly, "pre-" is a prefix meaning "before". Hence, the word "prefix" itself contains a prefix.
In the Indo-European languages, prefixes are mostly derivational morphemes (inflection is most often marked with suffixes).

Contents

List of English Prefixes

See also

List of English Prefixes

English Prefixes
Prefix	Meaning	Example
a-	not, not affected by	asexual
Afro-	relating to Africa	Afro-American
ante-	before	antenatal
anti-	against	anti-war
	opposite	anti-clockwise
arch-	chief	arch-rival
auto-	self	autobiography
bi-	two	bicycle
bio-	biological	biodegrade
circum-	around	circumference
co-	joint, together	co-worker
con-	together or with	confederation
contra-	opposite	contradict
cor-	used instead of CO-; before the letter "r"	correlation
counter-	against	counteract
crypto-	hidden	cryptography
de-	making the opposite of	de-emphasise
demi-	half	demigod
di-	two	dioxide
dis-	making the opposite of	disagree
du-/duo-	two	duet
eco-	ecological	ecosystem
Euro-	European	Eurocentric
ex-	former	ex-husband
	out of	extract
fin-	kinship	affinity
fore-	front, ahead of	forerunner
geo-	relating to the earth or its surface	geography
hydro-	relating to water, or using water	hydroelectricity
hyper-	very big	hypermarket
hypo-	under or below something	hypothermia
in-	not, opposite of	inexact
	in, into	insert
inter-	between	inter-state
intra-	inside	intravenous
mal-	bad(ly)	malnourish
mega-	very large	megastar
mid-	middle	midlife
midi-	medium-sized	midi-length
mini-	small	minimarket
mis-	wrong, false	misinformation
mono-	one	monogamy
multi-	many	multi-storey
neo-	new	Neolithic
non-	not, opposite of	nonexistent
out-	beyond	outreach
over-	too much	overreact
para-	beside	parallel
	beyond	paranormal
	ancillary	paramedic
ped-	foot	pediatrician
poly-	many	polygon
post-	after	post-election
pre-	before	pre-election
pro-	for	pro-life
	deputy	proconsul
pseudo-	false	pseudonym
quasi-	quarter	quasi-deity
re-	again	rerun
	back	reverse
retro-	backwards	retrograde
self-	self	self-sufficient
semi-	half	semi-circle
sub-	below	sub-zero
super-	more than	super-heated
supra-	above	suprarenal
sur-	more than, beyond	surreal
sym-	together or with	symbol
syn-	together; with	synchronize
tele-	at a distance	television
trans-	across	transatlantic
tri-	three	tricycle
ultra-	beyond	ultraviolet
	very much	ultra-careful
un-	not, opposite of	unnecessary
	reversal, cancellation	untie
under-	below, less than	underachieve
uni-	one	unicycle
up-	to make something greater, higher, or better	upgrade
ven-	to move forward	venal
vice-	deputy	vice-president

See also

★ Clitic

★ Pre-nominal letters

★ Greek and Latin roots

★ List of Latin words with English derivatives

★ SI prefix

★ Binary prefix

★ Numerical prefix

★ Internet-related prefixes

★ Unpaired word

★ separable prefix