What Are Prefixes?

home▸glossary▸Prefixes

A prefix is added to the front of a word to change its meaning

Both prefixes and suffixes (added to the back) are affixes. The big question with prefixes is whether to use a hyphen with a prefix.

Examples of Prefixes

Here are some examples of prefixes:

microscope

micro-

tripod

tri-

devalue

de-

Most Common Prefixes. The four most common prefixes account for over 95% of prefixed words. They are dis-, in-, re-, and un-.

A List of Common Prefixes

Here is a list of common prefixes with some examples:

Prefix	Meaning	Example
a-, an-	without	amoral, atypical
ante-	before	antecedent, antenatal
anti-	against	anti-establishment
auto-	self	autopilot
circum-	around	circumvent
co-	with	co-conspirator, co-pilot
com-, con-	with	companion, contact
contra-	against	contradiction
de-	off	delist, devalue
dis-	not	disappear
en-	put into	enclose, envelop
ex-	out of, former	extract, ex-governor
extra-	beyond, more than	extracurricular
hetero-	different	heterosexual
homo-	same	homonym, homophone
hyper-	over, more	hyperactive
il-, im-, in-, ir-	not, without	illegal, impractical, inconsiderate, irresponsible
in-	into	insert
inter-	between	internet, intersection,
intra-	between	intranet, intravenous
macro-	large	macronutrients
micro-	small	microscope
mono-	one	monocle
non-	not, without	nonentity, nonstarter,
omni-	all, every	omnipresent, omniscient
post-	after	post-mortem
pre-, pro-	before, forward	precede, project
sub-	under	submarine, substandard
syn-	same time	synchronize
super-	above	supervisor, superhuman
trans-	across	transmit
tri-	three	tripod, triceratops
un-	not	undone, unfinished,
uni-	one	unicorn, unilaterally