Category: Vocabulary

A prefix is a word part that attaches to the front of a root or to an existing word to create a new word. The prefix “micro,” for example, attached before the root “scope” gives us the word “microscope.” An “existing word,” it may be noted, may already contain a prefix. For example, we can add the prefix “in-” to the word “complete,” which itself is made up of the prefix “com-” attached to the root “plete.” The word “incomplete” then consists of two prefixes attached to a root. Similarly, the word “mistranslate” contains the two prefixes “mis-” and “trans-” standing before the root “lat.”

The list below contains some of the most common and important prefixes in English. All the prefixes in this list derive from Latin or Greek, except the two “un-” prefixes, which derive from Old English.

Additional example words for each prefix in the list below can be found by going to A-Z Word Parts under Search Tools in our dictionary, filtering the list there for “Prefixes” and browsing through the list. One may also use the search box on the A-Z Word Parts page to search the list for a particular prefix. Click here to learn more about how to use the Wordsmyth Word Parts database.

prefix	meaning	example word
anti-	against	antibacterial, antiwar, antislavery, anticancer drug
auto-	self	automobile, autobiography, autograph, automatic
bi-	two	bicycle, bilingual, bisect, binoculars
circu-, circum-	around	circular, circus, circulate, circumnavigate
com-	with; together	combine, combat, compose, component
dis-	not; apart; reverse, negate	disappear, disagree, dishonest, disbelief
en-1, em-1	to put into; cause to be or have	enjoy, envelope, enlarge, employ
ex-	out, out of, away from	exit, exhaust, exclude, export
il-2 im-2 in-2   ir-2	not, without	illegal, impossible  incomplete, incorrect, irregular
inter-	between, among	international, internet, interrupt, intersect
micro-	small	microscope, microsurgery, microbe, microwave
mis-	bad, badly, wrongly	mistake, misunderstand, misbehave, mistreat
multi-	many	multiply, multicolored, multitude, multitask
non-	not	nonsense, nonfiction, nondairy, nonessential
pre-	before	predict, precede, preheat, prejudge
re-	again, back, back again	rewrite, review, redo, rebuild, recall
sub-	under, below	subway, submarine, subcategory, submerge
trans-	across, over, to the other side	transport, transit, transatlantic, translate
un-1	not	unnecessary, unable, unusual, unequal
un-2	reverse (an action)	untie, undo, unbutton, unlock

See also:
Word Parts I: basic roots
Word Parts II: basic suffixes
Word Parts III: Intermediate level suffixes

Learn more about the Wordsmyth word parts database and how this unique feature can be used in facilitating vocabulary learning and teaching.

The difference between “few” and “a few”

Both “few” and “a few” indicate a small number of something. However, use of the little word “a” before the word “few” makes a very important difference in meaning.  Basically, “a few” communicates a positive idea concerning quantity, and “few,” without that little word, communicates a negative one.  If you say you have few friends, it sounds a bit sad because you consider the number of your friends to be very small, perhaps near zero.  If you say you have a few friends, the listener is given the impression that, although you may not have many friends, you have some friends at least. It’s probably not a sad situation.  Note, though, that the actual number of friends might in fact be the same. Choice of “few” or “a few” depends on the attitude of the speaker toward the quantity.

Notice how “yes” and “no” are used with “few” and “a few” in answers to questions.  You can see that answering with “few” goes along with the basic answer of “no.”

Did the students ask many questions about your presentation?
—No, they asked few questions.  They didn’t seem very interested.

Did the students ask many questions about your presentation?
—Yes, they asked a few.  Generally they seemed pretty interested.

Does your brother have pots and pans in the new apartment?
—No, he has few pots and pans, so I’m bringing him some for tonight’s dinner.

Does your brother have pots and pans in the new apartment?
—Yes, he has a few.  He has enough for tonight at least.

 “Few” without “a” is somewhat close in feeling to “no” and “none.” So, for example, “They made few complaints” gives almost the same impression as “They made no complaints.”  By contrast, “a few” is somewhat close in feeling to “some” or  “a number of.”  It’s a small amount, but it has some significance.  So, for example, “There are a few forks on the table already” gives almost the same impression as “There are a number of forks on the table already.” 

Note that “very few” intensifies the negative feeling of quantity of “few”: 

• She made very few mistakes on her exam; in fact, it was almost perfect.
• There were very few complaints about the service, so the banquet manager was pleased with her staff’s performance.

In contrast, “a very few” is still on the plus side.  It’s a very small amount, even smaller than “a few,” but it still has some significance.  It cannot be ignored.

• I’ve told this secret to only a very few people, but I still worry that others will find out.
• Yes, it’s true that a very few people have complained, but we’re handling the problem now. 

The difference between  “little” and “a little”

The difference between “little” and “a little” is exactly the same as between “few” and “a few.”  Although both expressions refer to a small amount of something, “little” is basically a negative expression of quantity (close in feeling to zero) and “a little” is a completely positive expression.  (Both “little” and “a little” are used with uncountable nouns only.)

• Do we ever go out for lunch?  No, we have little time for lunch so we eat at the office.
• We have little money left in our savings, so we have to be very careful with our spending now.
• There is very little gas in the car so we’d better stop and get some before we get on the highway.

• Yes, I do have a little material left over from my project. You are welcome to it if you’d like.
• My wife speaks a little Hindi, and it was very helpful when we were traveling in India.
• The situation looks bad, but I still have a little hope that everything will be all right.

It should be noted that if either of the expressions “a little ” or “a few” is modified by “only” or “just,” the expressions take on a slightly more negative feeling because these words signify an expectation that there could be or should be more. However, despite the possibility of being modified in this way, the two expressions remain positive rather than negative.

• I was disappointed that only a few students showed up for my presentation. [Some showed up, but I wish there had been more.]
• Was there any rain today? Well, I think we had just a little around noontime. [I feel as if it didn’t rain today, but I can’t deny that there was some rain around noontime.]

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The word “some” indicates a quantity of something, but it doesn’t strongly signal any particular quantity or any particular feeling that the actual quantity is important. There is very little difference, with respect to quantity, between “There are people in the dining room” and “There are some people in the dining room.”  Saying “There are some people” is just saying the opposite of “there are no people.”  The sense of quantity with “no” (or “not any”) is simply negative; the sense of quantity with “some” is simply positive.

When we use words like “a lot” or “a few,” we are giving some indication as to the quantity of something.  We understand that the quantity is large when we say “a lot” and that it is fairly small when we say “a few.”  We can use these expressions to answer questions with “How many?” or “How much?” But because “some” doesn’t give much indication of the actual number or amount of what it is referring to, it is not often used in answering such questions. If it is used in such situations, it sounds as if the speaker can’t really decide how to describe the quantity.  Still, when we need to interpret “some” as a particular quantity, we assume that it is somewhere between a little bit and a lot.  If someone asks us to put some flour in a bowl, we’d probably put in what we thought would be a moderate amount rather than what seems like a little or a lot.

Examples:

Be careful; there’s some water on the floor. 
We have some milk, but we don’t have any orange juice.
There are some movies that just don’t interest me at all. [A proportion of movies just don’t interest me.]
How many people came?  Well, some, but not many.
How many people came?  Well, some, but only a few.

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If we really think about it, quantity expressions, other than actual numbers and words like “none,” do not specify exact amounts, and some vary widely in the actual amounts they can refer to.  The choice of any one of them—“several,” “a lot,” “a bit,” “a few,” “many”– depends on how the speaker feels about the amount being referred to, and whether that amount feels small or large or somewhere in between.

The most specific of the quantity words are probably “a few” and “several”—and, of course, “a couple,” which usually means two, but doesn’t feel very precise.  “A few” usually means two or three, or maybe four.  But it could mean six or eight if one thought there might be sixty. (“A few” is always positive, though.  It may be a small amount, but it is still significant.)  Likewise, “several” means more than two but not so many as to confidently say “many.”  Even though “several” is defined as meaning more than two, and therefore possibly meaning “three,” it is generally felt to signify a quantity larger than “a few.”  Therefore, “several” usually suggests a quantity of more than four, but again, not so many as to make a person say “many.”

Other quantity expressions are even more vague about numbers and amounts than “a few” and “several.”  The amounts they refer to are highly relative.  “A good number of fish,” for example, could mean four or five if that’s the number of fish an amateur caught in an afternoon, but the phrase could mean several thousand if one is referring to the current number of fish in a lake, and especially if that number is surprising.  These expressions with “good“—“a good number,” “a good deal”—refer to quantities that seem large to the speaker but still seem less than what the speaker would feel comfortable describing as “many,” “a lot,” “a great number” or “a great deal.”

“Many” is a highly relative term (as is “a lot” and “much”).  It always refers to a number higher than two, but, other than that, it could mean any number from three to infinity, depending on what it is referring to and how the speaker feels about the number.  One could say “many gray hairs” if one found three on one’s head and was very surprised, or annoyed, or just exaggerating.  Or one could say “many stars” if one were actually referring to millions or billions.   The only important thing is that the number feels like a very large one to the speaker.

“Some” is the most vague and relative quantity expression of all.   In fact, we don’t often use it to answer a question about the specific quantity of something.  If we do use it in such cases,  we may give the impression that we cannot decide how to describe the actual amount.  As a quantity word, “some” is most often used as the positive complement of “any” or “no”  (e.g., “Is there any milk left?” –Yes, there’s some in the fridge.”  “I saw some beautiful birds yesterday, but I saw no birds at all this morning.” “I don’t have any peaches, but I’ve got some apples.)  Whereas  “no” and “any” are used to negate or question the existence of a quantity of something, “some” is used to state or affirm the existence of a quantity of something.  But, again, the actual amount of this thing is pretty much unimportant, except that it’s more than one, if the item is countable. 

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