Etymology 1
Borrowed from Late Latin praefīxum, from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“I (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “I fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“I fix”, “I fasten”, “I affix”)), equivalent to pre- + -fix. Doublet of the archaic synonym prefixum.
Noun
prefix (plural prefixes)
- Something placed before another
- (grammar, linguistic morphology) A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning, for example as, pre- in prefix, con- in conjure, re- in reheat, etc.
- Synonyms: (rare) foresyllable, (archaic) prefixum
- Antonym: suffix
- Hypernyms: (broad sense) affix, morpheme
- (telecommunications) A set of digits placed before a telephone number, to indicate where the number is based, what type of phone number it is (landline, mobile, toll-free, premium rate etc.)
in the UK, a number with an 0800 prefix is a toll-free number.
Add the prefix +34 to dial a Spanish number from abroad
- A title added to a person's name, such as Mr. or Dr.
- (computing) An initial segment of a string of characters.
The string "abra" is both a prefix and a suffix of the string "abracadabra".
Usage notes
- Though much less common, a plural form prefices is seen as well, apparently formed by analogy with index–indices, appendix–appendices, and so on, but it is not a standard plural and has no basis in Latin.
Coordinate terms
- (types of affixes): adfix, affix, ambifix, circumfix, confix, disfix, duplifix, infix, interfix, libfix, postfix, prefixoid, simulfix, suffix, suffixoid, suprafix, transfix
Translations
morpheme at the beginning of a word
- Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
- Adyghe: please add this translation if you can
- Afrikaans: voorvoegsel, prefiks
- Aghwan: please add this translation if you can
- Aklanon: please add this translation if you can
- Albanian: parashtesë (sq) f
- Arabic: سَابِقَة f (sābiqa), بَادِئَة f (bādiʔa)
- Aragonese: prefixo m
- Armenian: նախածանց (hy) (naxacancʻ)
- Asturian: prefixu (ast) m
- Belarusian: прыста́ўка f (prystáŭka)
- Bengali: উপসর্গ (bn) (upośorgo)
- Breton: rakger (br) m
- Bulgarian: предста́вка (bg) f (predstávka), префи́кс (bg) m (prefíks)
- Burmese: ရှေ့ဆက် (my) (hre.hcak)
- Catalan: prefix (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 前綴/前缀 (zh) (qiánzhuì), 詞頭/词头 (zh) (cítóu)
- Czech: předpona (cs) f, prefix (cs) m
- Danish: præfiks (da) n
- Dutch: voorvoegsel (nl) n, prefix (nl) n
- Esperanto: antaŭafikso, antaŭvortero, prefikso (eo)
- Estonian: prefiks
- Faroese: forskoyti
- Finnish: etuliite (fi), prefiksi (fi)
- French: préfixe (fr) m
- Galician: prefixo (gl) m
- Georgian: პრეფიქსი (ṗrepiksi), თავსართი (tavsarti)
- German: Präfix (de), Vorsilbe (de) f
- Greek: πρόθημα (el) n (próthima)
- Hebrew: תְּחִלִּית (he) f (tkhilít)
- Hindi: उपसर्ग (hi) m (upsarg)
- Hungarian: előtag (hu)
- Icelandic: forskeyti (is) n
- Ido: prefixo (io)
- Indonesian: awalan (id)
- Irish: réimír (ga) f
- Italian: prefisso (it) m
- Japanese: 接頭辞 (ja) (せっとうじ, settōji), 接頭語 (ja) (せっとうご, settōgo)
- Kazakh: префикс (prefiks)
- Khmer: បុព្វបទ (boppĕəʼbɑt)
- Korean: 접두사 (ko) (jeopdusa), 접두어 (jeopdueo)
- Kurdish:
- Central Kurdish: پێشگِر (ckb) (pêşgir)
- Northern Kurdish: pêşgir (ku)
- Kyrgyz: префикс (prefiks)
- Lao: ຄຳນຳໜ້າ (kham nam nā)
- Latin: praeverbium n, praefīxum n (Late)
- Latvian: priedēklis (lv) m
- Lithuanian: priešdėlis m
- Macedonian: претставка f (pretstavka), префикс m (prefiks)
- Malay: awalan (ms)
- Malayalam: ഉപസർഗം (ml) (upasaṟgaṁ)
- Maori: pīmua, kūmua
- Mongolian: угтвар (mn) (ugtvar) ᠤᠭᠲᠤᠪᠤᠷᠢ (uɣtuburi)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: prefiks (no) n, forstavelse m, forstaving m or f
- Nynorsk: prefiks n, førefeste n, forled m, førelekk m, forstaving f, førestaving f
- Pashto: سرينه f (sariná), مختاړی m (mǝxtãṛay)
- Persian: پیشوند (fa) (pišvand)
- Plautdietsch: Väasilb f
- Polish: przedrostek (pl) m, prefiks (pl) m
- Portuguese: prefixo (pt) m
- Romanian: prefix (ro) n
- Russian: приста́вка (ru) f (pristávka), пре́фикс (ru) m (préfiks)
- Scottish Gaelic: ro-leasachan m
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: прѐфикс m, пре́дметак m
- Roman: prèfiks (sh) m, prédmetak (sh) m
- Slovak: predpona f, prefix m
- Slovene: predpona (sl) f, prefiks m
- Spanish: prefijo (es) m
- Swahili: kiambishi awali
- Swedish: prefix (sv) n, förstavelse (sv) c
- Tagalog: unlapi (tl)
- Tajik: префикс (prefiks), пешванд (pešvand)
- Tamil: முன்னொட்டு (ta) (muṉṉoṭṭu)
- Thai: อุปสรรค (th) (ùp-bpà-sàk)
- Turkish: önek (tr), ön ek (tr)
- Turkmen: prefiks
- Ukrainian: пре́фікс (uk) m (préfiks)
- Urdu: سابقہ (ur)
- Uzbek: prefiks (uz)
- Vietnamese: tiền tố (vi)
- Volapük: foyümot (vo)
- Welsh: rhagddodiad (cy) m
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telecommunications: set of digits placed before a telephone number
title added to a person's name
computing: initial segment of a string of characters
Etymology 2
From Middle English prefixen, from Middle French prefixer,[1] from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“I (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “I fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“I fix”, “I fasten”, “I affix”)), equivalent to pre- + -fix.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈpɹiːfɪks/, /pɹiːˈfɪks/, /pɹɛˈfɪks/
- Rhymes: -ɪks
Verb
prefix (third-person singular simple present prefixes, present participle prefixing, simple past and past participle prefixed)
- (transitive) To determine beforehand; to set in advance. [from 15thc.]
2002, Thomas R. West, Signs of Struggle, page 23:It is important to realize that pregivenness or prefixing is a kind of anteriority that does its work in the present; subjects and meanings in part emerge in enuciative co-constitutive moments.
- (transitive) To put or fix before, or at the beginning of something; to place at the start. [from 16thc.]
Translations
put or fix before, or at the beginning of
set or appoint beforehand
Further reading
- prefix on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
- “prefix”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “prefix”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.