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prefix

/ˈpɹiːfɪks/noun, verb

prefix is spelled P-R-E-F-I-X. The wrong spelling people search most is preffix: about 10 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 250 of all searches for the word. Prefix is a noun meaning “A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to modify its meaning, for example as, pre- in prefix, con- in…”. The plural of prefix is prefixes.

How many letters and syllables are in prefix?

Letters6: P-R-E-F-I-X
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing1.7 times per million words; the 21,516th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, preffix, about 10 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell prefix?

Prefix is spelled P-R-E-F-I-X. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 251 of the searches for prefix in either form.

prefixthe right spelling2,500 searches a month
preffixan extra f10 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is prefix?

Prefix appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,516th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce prefix?

  • /ˈpɹiːfɪks/
  • /pɹɛˈfɪks/

As a verb (“To determine beforehand; to set in advance”): /ˈpɹiːfɪks/, /pɹiːˈfɪks/, /pɹɛˈfɪks/.

Prefix has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-prefix_(noun).wav, En-us-prefix.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-prefix2.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of prefix

  • prefixes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • prefixing participle, present
  • prefixed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does prefix mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    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.

  3. 3

    A title added to a person's name, such as Mr. or Dr.

  4. 4

    An initial segment of a string of characters.

    The string "abra" is both a prefix and a suffix of the string "abracadabra".

verb

  1. 1

    To determine beforehand; to set in advance.

    They duly arrived at the prefixed hour.

  2. 2

    To put or fix before, or at the beginning of something; to place at the start.

    His requests for money were usually prefixed by an apology.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate prefix?

Wiktionary records 4 abbreviations of prefix: pfx, pref, pref., prex.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Prefix in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchpréfixe (morpheme at the beginning of a word), titre (title added to a person's name), préfixer (put or fix before, or at the beginning of)
GermanPräfix, Vorsilbe (morpheme at the beginning of a word), präfigieren, mit einem Präfix versehen, voranstellen (put or fix before, or at the beginning of)
Spanishprefijo (morpheme at the beginning of a word), prefijar (put or fix before, or at the beginning of)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does prefix come from?

Borrowed from Late Latin praefīxum, from Latin praefīxus, past participle of praefīgō (“to (fix, fasten, set up) in front”, “to fix on the (end, extremity)”) (from prae- (“before”) + fīgō (“to fix”, “to fasten”, “to affix”)), equivalent to pre- + -fix. Doublet of the archaic synonym prefixum.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after prefix