Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An affix added to the end of a word or stem, serving to form a new word or functioning as an inflectional ending, such as -ness in gentleness, -ing in walking, or -s in sits.
  • transitive verb To add as a suffix.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To attach at the end: specifically used of adding or annexing a letter or syllable, a suffix.
  • noun In. grammar, a letter or syllable added or annexed to the end of a word or to a verbal root or stem; a formative element, consisting of one or more letters, added to a primitive word to make a derivative; a postfix; a terminal formative, as the -th of length, the -d of loved, the -ly of godly, the -ly of badly, etc.
  • noun In mathematics, an index written after and under a letter, as x0, x1, x2, x3.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A letter, letters, syllable, or syllables added or appended to the end of a word or a root to modify the meaning; a postfix.
  • noun (Math.) A subscript mark, number, or letter. See Subscript, a.
  • transitive verb To add or annex to the end, as a letter or syllable to a word; to append.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One or more letters or sounds added at the end of a word to modify the word's meaning, such as able, which changes sing into singable, for example.
  • verb transitive to append (something) to the end of something else

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb attach a suffix to
  • noun an affix that is added at the end of the word

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin suffīxum, from Latin, neuter of suffīxus, past participle of suffīgere, to fasten underneath, affix : sub-, sub- + fīgere, to fix, fasten; see dhīgw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sub ("under, beneath") + fixus, perfect passive participle of figere ("to fasten, fix").

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Examples

  • However, the whole point of this “- s” suffix is to turn a singular into a plural.

    Singular “they” and the many reasons why it’s correct « Motivated Grammar 2009

  • This suffix is used to indicate an act or process, or a thing acted upon or a condition.

    The Missional Path 2008

  • The word titivate apparently was derived from tidy with a quasi-Latin suffix added.

    Word Fugitives 2004

  • The word titivate apparently was derived from tidy with a quasi-Latin suffix added.

    Word Fugitives 2004

  • When I use Mythweb to output a recording as an. mpg file (using the Direct Download button) the file ends up with a name suffix consisting of ". mpg..mpg.".

    Ubuntu Forums hundred1906 2010

  • A plausible explanation may be that, when - oo occurs as a slang suffix rather than an infix (as in superoo for super or smasheroo for smash (er)), the primary stress of the word shifts from the first syllable to the last.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol III No 4 1977

  • "psychological" - suffix from the Greek for "reason," logos, perhaps a foreign concept as well.

    Think Progress 2009

  • A company or government or individual that wants a domain-name suffix must pay Icann $185,000 just to apply.

    Web Addresses Enter New.Era Sam Holmes 2011

  • That comes on top of the costs of running the domain-name suffix, likely outsourced to a company already in the business, which can run anywhere from $15,000 to millions of dollars, depending on the number of users, according to Ms. Cooper of MarkMonitor.

    Web Addresses Enter New.Era Sam Holmes 2011

  • For companies, even those that are happy with dot-com and aren't interested in adopting a new domain-name suffix will have to monitor the process to head off any potential trademark or brand-name infringement from other applicants, Internet experts said.

    Web Addresses Enter New.Era Sam Holmes 2011

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