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Linguistics & Grammar vocabulary · Morphology and Word Formation

Affix

Meaning in linguistics & grammar, with examples

/ˈæfɪks/nounCore term

In linguistics & grammar, affix means: A piece added to a word to change its meaning or grammatical form, such as a prefix at the start (re-) or a suffix at the end (-ed).

In Turkish: ek

How it is used

The umbrella term for prefixes, suffixes and, in some languages, infixes. Affixes can be inflectional (-s, -ed) or derivational (un-, -ness). As a verb, stressed on the second syllable, affix means attach.

Example sentences

  1. Turkish relies almost entirely on suffixes, while English uses both kinds of affix.

  2. Learners can guess many new words by spotting a familiar affix such as -less or dis-.

Common collocations

  • derivational affix
  • inflectional affix
  • add an affix
  • productive affix
  • prefixA letter or group of letters added to the beginning of a word to make a new word with a different meaning, such as un- in unhappy or re- in rewrite.
  • suffixA letter or group of letters added to the end of a word to change its meaning, its word class or its grammatical form, such as -ness, -ful or -ed.
  • morphemeThe smallest part of a word that has its own meaning or grammatical job, such as un-, happy and -ness in unhappiness.
  • inflectionA change in the form of a word, usually by adding an ending, to show grammatical information such as tense, number, person or case, without making a new word.
  • derivationThe process of making a new word from an existing one, usually by adding an affix, as when teach becomes teacher or happy becomes unhappy.

More terms: Morphology and Word Formation

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