suffix

See also: Suffix

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin suffīxus (“suffix”), from sub- (“under”) +‎ fīxus (perfect passive participle of fīgere (“to fasten, fix”)), equivalent to sub- +‎ -fix.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (noun) /ˈsʌfɪks/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (verb) IPA^(key): /ˈsʌfɪks/, /səˈfɪks/
• Rhymes: -ɪks

Noun

suffix (plural suffixes)

2. (grammar, linguistic morphology) A morpheme added at the end of a word to modify the word's meaning.

   Synonym: (narrow sense) affix

   Antonym: prefix

   Hypernyms: (broad sense) affix, morpheme

   The suffix "-able" changes "sing" into "singable".

   • 1945, E[lizabeth] G[idley] Withycombe, “Introduction”, in The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page xiv:

     The praenomen and nomen for the most part consisted of simple stems with the suffix -us or -ius, […]

   • 2006, “Ithkuil Q & A”, in The Conlanger's Library‎^[1], archived from the original on 14 January 2025, pages 3, 6:

     Before I simply create a root meaning X, is there any way I can use Ithkuil morphological categories or the 150 or so suffix categories to derive this word from a more general or primary word? […] In other words, the writer would not write or “key” a certain Ithkuil symbol, but rather would select a particular root from a database and identify the particular forms of the 22 morphological categories which apply to the root as well as any suffixes.

3. (mathematics) A subscript.
4. (computing) A final segment of a string of characters.

   The string "abra" is both a prefix and a suffix of the string "abracadabra".

Usage notes

• The plural suffices occasionally appears (including in one educational publication), but it is not a standard plural and has no basis in the Latin origin of the term.

Coordinate terms

types of affixesedit

• adfix
• affix
• ambifix
• circumfix
• confix
• disfix
• duplifix
• infix
• interfix
• libfix
• postfix
• prefix
• prefixoid
• simulfix
• suffix
• suffixoid
• suprafix
• transfix

Derived terms

• derivational suffix
• inflectional suffix
• null suffix
• possessive suffix
• semisuffix
• suffixal
• suffixation
• suffixness
• zero suffix

Translations

morpheme added at the end of a word to modify the word's meaning

• Afrikaans: agtervoegsel (af), suffiks
• Albanian: prapashtesë (sq) f
• Arabic: لَاحِقَة f (lāḥiqa)
• Aragonese: sufixo m
• Armenian: վերջածանց (hy) (verǰacancʻ)
• Asturian: sufixu (ast) m
• Azerbaijani: şəkilçi (az), suffiks
• Belarusian: су́фікс m (súfiks)
• Bengali: প্রত্যয় (bn) (prottoẏ)
• Breton: lostger (br) m
• Bulgarian: суфи́кс (bg) m (sufíks), наста́вка (bg) f (nastávka)
• Burmese: နောက်ဆက် (my) (naukhcak)
• Catalan: sufix (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 後綴 / 后缀 (zh) (hòuzhuì), 尾綴 / 尾缀 (zh) (wěizhuì)

• Crimean Tatar: suffiks
• Czech: přípona (cs) f
• Danish: suffiks (da) n
• Dutch: achtervoegsel (nl) n, suffix (nl) m, aanhangsel (nl) n
• Esperanto: postafikso, sufikso (eo)
• Estonian: sufiks
• Finnish: jälkiliite (fi), takaliite (fi), suffiksi (fi), pääte (fi)
• French: suffixe (fr) m
• Galician: sufixo (gl) m
• Georgian: სუფიქსი (supiksi), ბოლოსართი (bolosarti)
• German: Suffix (de) n (Suffixum n, Affix (de) n (narrow sense), Affixum n), Postfix n, Nachsilbe (de) f, Anhängsilbe f
• Greek: επίθημα (el) n (epíthima)
• Hebrew: סוֹפִית (he) f (sofít)
• Hindi: प्रत्यय (hi) m (pratyay)
• Hungarian: képző (hu), végződés (hu), toldalék (hu)
• Icelandic: viðskeyti n
• Ido: sufixo (io)
• Indonesian: akhiran (id)
• Interlingua: suffixo
• Irish: iarmhír (ga) f
• Italian: suffisso (it) m
• Japanese: 接尾辞 (ja) (せつびじ, setsubiji), 接尾語 (ja) (せつびご, setsubigo)
• Kazakh: жұрнақ (jūrnaq)
• Khmer: បច្ច័យ (km) (paccay)
• Korean: 접미사 (ko) (jeommisa), 접미어 (jeommieo)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: پاشگِر (ckb) (paşgir)

  Northern Kurdish: paşgir (ku)

• Kyrgyz: суффикс (suffiks)
• Lao: ວິພັດ (wi phat)
• Latin: suffixum, affixum
• Latvian: piedēklis (lv) m, sufikss (lv) m
• Lithuanian: priesaga f, sufiksas m
• Macedonian: наставка f (nastavka), суфикс m (sufiks)
• Malay: akhiran (ms)
• Maori: pīmuri, kūmuri, hiku
• Mongolian: залгавар (mn) (zalgavar)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: suffiks (no) n

  Nynorsk: suffiks n

• Persian: پسوند (fa) (pasvand)
• Polish: przyrostek (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: sufixo (pt)
• Quechua: k'askaq
• Romanian: sufix (ro) n
• Russian: су́ффикс (ru) m (súffiks), по́стфикс (ru) m (póstfiks)
• Scottish Gaelic: iar-leasachan m, iar-mhìr m or f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: суфикс (sh) m, дометак m

  Roman: sufiks (sh) m, dometak (sh) m

• Slovak: prípona f
• Slovene: pripona (sl) f
• Spanish: sufijo (es) m
• Swahili: kiambishi tamati
• Swedish: suffix (sv) n
• Tagalog: hulapi (tl)
• Tajik: суффикс (tg) (suffiks), пасванд (pasvand)
• Tamil: பின்னொட்டு (ta) (piṉṉoṭṭu)
• Thai: ปัจจัย (th) (bpàt-jai)
• Turkish: sonek (tr)
• Turkmen: suffiks
• Ukrainian: су́фікс (uk) m (súfiks)
• Uzbek: suffiks (uz)
• Vietnamese: hậu tố (vi), đuôi (vi) (colloquial)
• Volapük: poyümot (vo)
• Welsh: olddodiad (cy) m

See also

• Category:English suffixes

Verb

suffix (third-person singular simple present suffixes, present participle suffixing, simple past and past participle suffixed)

1. (transitive) To append (something) to the end of something else.

Related terms

• affix
• crucifixion
• fix
• fixation
• infix
• postfix
• prefix
• suffixal
• suffixion
• suffix tree

Translations

append (something) to the end of something else

• Catalan: sufixar (ca)
• Finnish: liittää (fi), (grammar) suffiksoida
• French: suffixer (fr)
• German: suffigieren (linguistics), mit einem Suffix versehen
• Greek: επιθηματοποιώ (epithimatopoió)
• Hungarian: hozzátold (hu), hozzátesz (hu), megtold (hu), hozzáilleszt (hu), toldalékol (hu), toldalékkal ellát, szuffigál
• Icelandic: skeyta við
• Norwegian: suffigere
• Portuguese: sufixar (pt)
• Spanish: sufijar (es)
• Welsh: ychwanegu (cy), atodi (cy), olddodi

Further reading

• suffix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Swedish

Noun

suffix n

1. (grammar) A suffix (affix appended to a word)

Declension

Declension of suffix

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	suffix	suffix
	definite	suffixet	suffixets
plural	indefinite	suffix	suffix
	definite	suffixen	suffixens